■i^rs
V. 7
,yfc--— ^-
^Mi
|0lduiin
Smith '
ibrarfi.
Presented to
Tht.
Cornell
Li n i versHy,
1870,
GoLIiW
N Smith, M . A
. Oxon.,
Reg
us Profeffbr of Hiftory
Univerfity of Oxford.
in the
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
3 1924 103 071 399
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Cornell University
Library
The original of tiiis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924103071399
THE
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
FROM A(;RIC0LA'S INVASION TO THE
REVOLUTION OF 1688
JOHN HILL BURTON
VOL. VII.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCLXX
(T
//CORNELL^
UNIVERSITY
JBRARY.,
0^3
CONTENTS OF SEVENTH VOLUME.
CHAPTER LXXr.
PACK
THE TWO PARTIES IN THE NORTH THE POWER OP IIUNTLY
FORCES AVAILABLE IN THE SODTII OP SCOTLAND — GENERAL
ALEXANDER LESLIE THE SCOTS TRAINED IN THE THIRTY
years' WAR COLLECTION OF MONEY AND RECRUITING THE
GREAT GENERAL ASSEMBLY' AT GLASGOW ITS IMPORTANCE
AND PICTURESQUENESS THE RECOVERY OF THE RECORDS
THE ABOLITION OF TUB EPISCOPAL HIERARCHY RECONSTRUC-
TION OF THE CHURCH— END OF A GREAT ECCLESIASTICAL CON-
TROVERSY A COVENANTING ARMY' SENT NORTHWARD AP-
PEARANCE IN ABERDEEN MONTROSE AND HUNTLY' CAPTURE
AND REMOVAL OF IIUNTLY LORD LEWIS GORDON TROT OF
TURRIFF FIRST BLOOD DRAWN IN THE GREAT WAR, . 1-48
CHAPTER LXXH.
©Jatlcs I.
HAMILTON AND LAUD THE KINg's PREPARATIONS — MOVEMENTS
IN SCOTLAND THE SEIZURE OF EDINBURGH CASTLE AND OTHER
FORTRESSES ROYALIST FLEET IN THE FORTH ALEXANDER
LESLIE GATHERS A COVENANTING ARMY COMPOSITION OF THE
ARMY THE LOWLAND AGRICULTURISTS AROYLe's HIGH-
LANDERS THE CAMP ON DUNSE LAW THE KINg's ARMY ON
THE OTHER SIDE HINTS FOR A SUPPLICATION THE PLAN
TRIED THE KINg's RECEPTION OF IT PACIFICATION OF BER-
WICK SUSPICIONS — A SUPPLEMENTAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY
VI CONTENTS.
HKMOUTIciN (II- i:i'I^COPAC'Y REPEATED — THE KIN(!'s J.AUGE
liErr,AliATI(>\ A PAEUAMEXT THE CONSTITUTIl )N OF THE
1-STATES — llEAlJiNdS WITH THE FRENCH f'OURT THE QUARREL
PvENKWINC STATE OF FEELIX(; IN ENGLAND AN ENGLISH
ARMY MAUCUING TO THE NORTH LESLIe's ARMY RECOX-
STRDCTED MONTROSE AND THE PASSAGE OF THE TWEED
CROSSING THE TYNE AT NEWBORN, AND DEFEAT OF THE
king's AR^n- OGOUPATION OF NEWCASTLE TREATY OF
IMPON, . . . . • 4!->-124
CHAPTER LXXIir.
®f)arlcs 1.
ADJOURNMENT OF THE TREATY TO LONDON SCOTS COMMISSION-
ERS THERE THEIR POPULARITY THE LONG PARLIAMENT
FALL OF STRAFFORD AND LAUD CONTESTS IN THE NORTH
MONRO IN ABERDEEN ARGYLe's BANDS IN THE WEST
RAVAGE THE NORTHERN LOWLANDS THE GREAT PARLIAMENT
OF 1641 THE king's PRESENCE CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
COMMITTEE OF ESTATES MONTROSE AND AEGYLE THE
INCIDENT AND THE RECRIMINATIONS MONTROSE's CHANGE
NEWS OF THE IRISH OUTBREAK THE SUSPICIONS AGAINST
THE KING THE USE OF THE GREAT SEAL OP SCOTLAND THE
SCOTS ARMY IN IRELAND UNDER LESLIE AND MONRO THE
MASSACRE THE RUMOURS AND TERRORS IN SCOTLAND THE
SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT MONTROSe's SCHEME
GATHERS A HIGHLAND ARMY ARGYLE AT INVERLOCHY
BATTLES OF TIBBERMUIR AND KILSYTH HIS FORCE SCATTERED
I!Y LESLIE AT PHILIPHAUGH, . . . 125-198
CHAPTER LXXIV.
ffijjarkg B.
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY"- OF DIVINES CONSTITUTION RESPON-
SIBILITY TO PARLIAMENT ELEMENTS OF OPPOSITION AND
DISPUTE POLICY OF INSTITUTING THE ASSEMBLY' OCCUPA-
TION FOR THE CLERGY BAILLIE's PICTURE OF THE OPENING
FUNCTION OF THE SCOTS COMMISSIONERS THEIR INFLUENCE
THE PASSING OF THE COVENANT THE BROWNISTS AND INDE-
PENDENTS PARLIAMENT AND THE DIVINE RIGHT OF PRESBY-
CONTENTS. Vll
TEKY RIGHT OF DISCIPLINE THE DIKECTORY OF WORSHIP
THE VERSION OF THE PSALMS ADOPTION IN SCOTLAND THE
CONFESSION OF FAITH THE CATECHISMS CONTEMPORARY
AFFAIRS IN SCOTLAND EXECUTION OP IIADDO AND SPOTTIS-
WOOD THE SCOTS ARMY IN ENGLAND THE KING JOINS IT
CONTROVERSY WITH HENDERSON THE KING GIVEN UP TO THE
PARLIAMENTARY PARTY THE TREATY OP NEWPORT THE
ENGAGEMENT HAMILTON'S MARCH TO PRESTON HIS DEFEAT
THE MAUCHLINE TESTIMONY THE WIIIGAMORES CEOM-
WELl's ARRANGEMENT WITH ARGYLE AND THE ESTATES
THE ACT OF CLASSES EXECUTION OF THE KING, AND PRO-
CLAMATION OF CHARLES II., . . . 199-251
CHAPTER LXXV.
®5c ©ommontDealti).
EXECUTION OF HAMILTON AND HUNTLY MONTROSe's PROJECT IN
THE HIGHLANDS ITS FAILURE HIS CAPTURE AND EXECUTION
THE COMMISSIONERS WITH CHARLES IL IN HOLLAND
NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE COVENANT IN SCOTLAND - — CROM-
WELl's INVASION KING CHARLES AND THE COVENANTERS
THE COMPULSORY TESTS BECOMES A COVENANTED KING
CROMWELL AND LESLIE THE BATTLE OF DUNBAR ITS CON-
CLUSIVE INFLUENCE CROMWELL AND THE COVENANTING
PARTY THE START THE CORONATION THE JIARCH INTO
ENGLAND THE BATTLE OF WORCESTER TAKING OF THE
SCOTS FORTRESSES FATE OF DUNDEE MONK ORGANISA-
TION OF GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND COURTS OF LAW CLOS-
ING OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY INCORPORATING UNION ■
NAVIGATION LAWS AND FREE-TRADE ABOLITION OF THE
FEUDAL SYSTEM REPORT ON THE SHIPPING AND REVENUE OF
SCOTLAND GLENCAIRn's EXPEDITION CONCLUSION OF THE
PROTECTORATE, ..... 252-334
CHAPTER LXXVI.
Social progress from tljc Mtformation to ti)c Mcstoration.
LITERATURE DECAY OF LATIN LITERATURE PASSES FROM A
LIVING TO A DEAD LANGUAGE RISE OF VERNACULAR LITERA-
TURE^POETRY HUME DEUMMOND SIR ROBERT AYTOUN
via CONTENTS.
IIALLAU LITKKATUKE SONGS — NATIONAL MUSIC SCIENt li
NAPIER OF MEKCIIISTON GKEOOKY AKT JAMESONE THE
I'AINTER FATE OF ECCLESIASTICAL AKCUITECTURE UAEO-
NIAL AND STKEET ARCHITECTURE PROGRESS OF WEALTH
CONDITION OF THE TOWNS NOTICES OF SCOTLAND BY
VISITORS THE MORALITY OF THE PEOPLE THE SUPERSTI-
IIONS AS THE DARK SIDE OF THE SOCIAL SYSTEM MALIGNANT
INFLUENCE OF BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT DIABOLICAL POSSES-
SIONS, ...... 335-3^5
CHAPTER LXXVII.
Mestoratfon <5«ttkmcnt.
ARRIVAL OF THE KING IN LONDON THE REJOICINGS IN SCOTLAND
RESUMPTION OF COMMITTEE OF ESTATES THE ENGLISH NA-
VIGATION ACT, AND END OF FREE-TRADE THE TESTIMONY OF
THE REMONSTRANT PARTY THEIR CONDITION AND INFLUENCE
PROSPECTS OF RELIGION AMBASSADORS AT COURT FOR THE
MODERATE PARTY OF THE CHURCH HISTORY OF THE NEGO-
TIATIONS OF JAMES SHARP SENT TO PLEAD FOR THE PRES-
BYTERIAN CAUSE, AND RETURNS AS ARCHBISHOP OF ST
ANDREWS THE REGALIA PRESERVED LOSS OF RECORDS
THE FORTRESSES MEETING OF ESTATES MIDDLETON AS
COM.MISSIONER THE EQUIVOCAL PROMISES ABOUT THE CHURCH
THE ACT RESCISSORY ESTABLISHMENT OF EPISCOPAL IIIER-
AKCIIV VICTIMS ARGY'LE — GUTHRIE WARRISTON, 386-431
CHAPTER LXXVni.
®l)arlcs H.
THE INDEMNITY THE EXCEPTIONS THE DRUNKEN PARLIAMENT
THE GREAT EJECTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS
COURT OF HIGH COMMISSION MILE ACT THE REVOLUTION AT
COURT — Lauderdale's position — contest with middleton
VICTORY constitutional REVELATIONS OF THE CONTEST
ROTHES AS COMMISSIONER GOVERNMENT OP LAUDERDALE
ITS 3IYSTERI0US POLICY THE PERSECUTION QUARTERING
OF SOLDIERS IRRITATION GATHERING OF AN INSURRECTION
MARCH FROM THE WESTERN MOORS TO THE PENTLAND HILLS
DEFEATED AT RULLION GREEN GENERAL DALZIEL TREAT-
CONTENTS. IX
MENT OF THE CAPTIVES LAUDERDALE COMMISSIONER HIS
COURT THE FIRST INDULGENCE TREATMENT OF RECUSANTS
LAWBUREOWS INTERCOMMUNING THE COURTS OP LAW
SECESSION OF THE BAR ARCHBISHOP SHARP HIS ISOLATED
POSITION ATTEMPT ON HIS LIFE HIS DISCOVERY OF ITS
AUTHOR PROJECT AGAINST THE SHERIFF OP FIFE THE
ARCHBISHOP COMES IN HIS STEAD THE MURDER THE ESCAPE
OP THE MURDERERS, .... 432-508
CHAPTER LXXIX.
?^ouge of ^tcfoart to tl)c Metiolution.
CONVENTICLES ARMING OP THE WESTERN PEASANTRY BATTLE
OF DEUMCLOG JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE THE IN-
SURRECTION DUKE OF MONMOUTH SENT THE DISPUTES
ROBERT HAMILTON BATTLE OF BOTHWELL BRIDGE THE RE-
TRIBUTION THE SANQUHAR DECLARATION HACKSTON OP
EATHILLET AIRDS MOSS THE CAMERONIANS THE POPISH
PLOT — RYEHOUSE AND ASSASSINATION PLOTS SUCCESSION
AND TEST ACTS THE EXCOMMUNICATION OP THE KING THE
RELIGIOUS PARTIES THE DUKE OF YORK THE COMMISSION
OF JUSTICIARY AND THE MILITARY EXECUTIONS CLAVER-
HOUSE AND JOHN BROWN THE WIGTOWN MARTYRS SUCCES-
SION OF JAMES VII. — Monmouth's rebellion — argyle's in-
surrection IIIS EXECUTION SIR PATRICK HUME BAILLIE
OF JERVISWOOD THE INDULGENCES THE PERSECUTION OP
RECUSANTS CONTINUED THE PROSPECT OP A POPISH RULE
THE EEVOLUTION, .... 509-576
INDEX, ...... 577-651
THE
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
CHAPTER LXXI.
THE TWO PARTIES IN THE NORTH THE POWER OF HUNTLY
FORCES AVAILABLE IN THE SOUTH OF SCOTLAND — GENERAL
ALEXANDER LESLIE THE SCOTS TRAINED IN THE THIRTY YEARS'
WAR COLLECTION OF MONEY AND RECRUITING — THE GREAT
GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT GLASGOW ITS IMPORTANCE AND PIC-
TURESQUENESS THE RECOVERY OF THE RECORDS — THE ABOLI-
TION OF THE EPISCOPAL HIERARCHY RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
CHURCH — END OF A GREAT ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROVERSY — A
COVENANTING ARMY SENT NORTHWARD APPEARANCE IN ABER-
DEEN^MONTROSE AND HUNTLY CAPTURE AND REMOVAL OF
HUNTLY LORD LEWIS GORDON — TROT OF TURRIFF — FIRST
BLOOD DRAWN IN THE GREAT WAR.
When Huntly, the natural leader of the king's party
in the north, died in 1636, his son George, the heir of
the house, was in France, commanding a company of
gens cHarmes. He had not long returned home when
it became clear that the Royalist and Cavalier party
must look to him as the centre of their strength ; and
soon after the period which we have reached he was
appointed the king's Lieutenant in the north. At an
VOL. VII. A
2 CHARLES I.
early stage of the dispute we find the instinct of the
Covenanters pointing to him as their natural enemy,
but taking a moderate estimate of his power to hurt
them. Strong he was, no doubt, in his own place ;
but he was isolated by barriers not to be broken by
any strength at his command. Eoxburgh had alluded
to danger in that quarter in a conversation with
Eothes ; " whereto Eothes replied he would not give a
salt citron for liim ; for two Fife lairds could keep
him from crossing Dundee Ferry, and half-a-dozen
Angus lairds could keep him from crossing the Cairn
o' Month ; that three parts of his name is decayed,
and he wants the two sheriffships." ^ This is an allu-
sion to the discountenance of the house of Huntly by
the Court of King Charles, and especially to the re-
moval out of its hands of the sheriffship of Aberdeen
and the sherifiship of Inverness.
But, if we may credit one who had good means of
knowing what he said, though the Covenanting chief
thus slighted Huntly 's power, the party had made
zealous efforts to secure him as an ally. Had they
clone so, all Scotland would have been theirs before
the war had begun ; for the community of Aberdeen,
even if a few zealous lairds in the neighbourhood had
joined them, could not have made even a show of
resistance. The young Huntly had been brought up
a Protestant, so that no impassable gulf lay between
him and the Presbyterians, as in his father's day.
Colonel Pv,obert Monro, one of the Scotsmen from the
German Avars who had taken service with the Cove-
nanters, was sent as their ambassador to Strathbogie.
The offers intrusted to him were great : " The sum
1 Relation, 62, 6.3.
STATE OF FORCES, 1638. 3
of his commission to Huntly was, that the noblemen
Covenanters were desirous that he shouki join with them
in the common cause ; tliat if he would do so, and
take the Covenant, they would give him the first place,
and make him leader of their forces ; and further,
they would make his state and his fortunes greater
than ever they were ; and, moreover, they should pay
off and discharge all his debts, which they knew to be
about ane hundred thousand pounds sterling ; that
their forces and associates were a hundred, to one with
the king ; and therefore it was to no purpose to him
to take up arms against them, for if he refused his
offer and declared against them, they should find
means to disable him for to helf) the king ; and,
moreover, they knew how to undo him ; and bade
him expect that they will ruinate his family and
estates."
The reception given by the new marquess to this
alternative is told in thorough keeping with the
chivalrous character of his father : " To this proposi-
tion Huntly gave a short and resolute re.partee, that
his family had risen and stood by the kings of Scot-
land ; and for his part, if the event proved the ruin
of this king, he was resolved to lay his life, honours,
and estate under the rubbish of the king his ruins.
But withal thanked the gentleman who had brought
the commission and had advised him thereto, as pro-
ceeding from one whom he took for a friend and good-
wilier, and urged out of a good intention to him." ^
To note the source whence the chief secular
strength on the other side was to be drawn we must
pass to a distant scene. England and Scotland had
1 Gordon's Scots Affairs, i. 49, 50.
2 CHARLES I.
early stage of the dispute we find the instinct of the
Covenanters pointing to him as their natural enemy,
but taking a moderate estimate of his power to hurt
them. Strong he was, no doubt, in his own place ;
but he was isolated by barriers not to be broken by
any strength at his command. Roxburgh had alluded
to danger in that quarter in a conversation with
Eothes ; " whereto Eothes replied he would not give a
salt citron for liim ; for two Fife lairds could keep
him from crossing Dundee Ferry, and half-a-dozen
Angus lairds could keep him from crossing the Cairn
o' Month ; that three parts of his name is decayed,
and he wants the two sheriffships." ^ This is an allu-
sion to the discountenance of the house of Huntly by
the Court of King Charles, and especially to the re-
moval out of its hands of the sheriftship of Aberdeen
and the sheriftship of Inverness.
But, if we may credit one who had good means of
knowing what he said, though the Covenanting chief
thus slighted Huntly 's power, the party had made
zealous efforts to secure him as an ally. Had they
done so, all Scotland would have been theirs before
the war had begun ; for the commu.nity of Aberdeen,
even if a few zealous lairds in the neighbourhood had
joined them, could not have made even a show of
resistance. The young Huntly had been brought up
a Protestant, so that no impassable gulf lay between
him and the Presbyterians, as in his father's day.
Colonel Robert Monro, one of the Scotsmen from the
German wars who had taken service with the Cove-
nanters, was sent as their ambassador to Strathbogie.
The offers intrusted to him were great : " The sum
1 Relation, 62, 63.
STATE OF FORCES, 1638. 3
of his commission to Huntly was, that the noblemen
Covenanters were desirous that he should join with them
in the common cause ; that if he would do so, and
take the Covenant, they would give him the first place,
and make him leader of their forces ; and further,
they would make his state and his fortunes greater
than ever they were ; and, moreover, they should pay
off and discharge all his debts, which they knew to be
about ane hundred thousand pounds sterling : that
their forces and associates were a hundred, to one with
the king ; and therefore it was to no purpose to him
to take up arms against them, for if he refused his
offer and declared against them, they should find
means to disable him for to help the king ; and,
moreover, they knew how to undo him ; and bade
him expect that they will ruinate his family and
estates."
The reception given by the new marquess to this
alternative is told in thorough keeping with the
chivalrous character of his father : " To this proposi-
tion Huntly gave a short and resolute repartee, that
his family had risen and stood by the kings of Scot-
land ; and for his part, if the event proved the ruin
of this king, he was resolved to lay his life, honours,
and estate under the rubbish of the king his ruins.
But withal thanked the gentleman who had brought
the commission and had advised him thereto, as pro-
ceeding from one whom he took for a friend and good-
wilier, and urged out of a good intention to him." ^
To note the source whence the chief secular
strength on the other side was to be drawn we must
pass to a distant scene. England and Scotland had
1 Gordon's Scots Affairs, i. 49, 50.
4 CHARLES I.
been for many years at peace both ^vith each other
and with the rest of the world. Tlirongh the affair of
the PaLatinate, Britain seemed to be drifting into the
mighty contests of the Continent. Here, and in the
affair of La Rochelle, the peaceful or timid policy of
King James kept his dominions out of war, and brought
on him the reproach of acting the unnatural father and
the indifferent Protestant. The Continent was shaken
by the longest and bloodiest war of modern ages. This
island seemed to stand serenely aloof from all its
horrors ; l^ut it was yet to be seen that the Thirty
Years' War and its effects would not pass away without
leaving a mark on the destinies of Britain. In fact
the winding up of that war threw loose the materials
that were to revive into the civil wars of Britain.
A political axiom of Chesterfield's that seems always
the more accurate the more one reflects on it was,
that " the Peace of Westphalia is the foundation of all
subsequent treaties." Even the later readjustment of
the map of Eurojje at the treaty of Vienna scarcely
modifies this character. The great treaty itself was not
yet concluded, but the armies were breaking up, and the
war was drawing towards the end. The time was yet
distant when Scotland was to reap, in improved in-
dustry and enlarged riches, the fruit of a good under-
standing with England. The country was still depen-
dent on foreign enterprise for the employment of its
more restless spirits. They were to be found scattered
through the armies on both sides of the great war, but
chiefly on the Protestant side. Gustavus Adolphus,
who knew Avell what went to make a good soldier,
courted them to his standard. It is impossible to
approach by an estimate the number of Scots who thus
STATE OF FORCES, 1638. 5
swarmed out of tlie country in the various leaguers.
Gustavus is said to have had ten thousand at his dis-
posal. That altogether the Scots troopers were a
large element in the war we may gather from the
strength of specific reinforcements. Thus in 1 626 went
forth the small army called Mackay's Regiment, said
at the time to be four thousand strong, whose deeds
have been recorded by their leader, Colonel Robert
Monro. Raising these troops was private venture ;
but King Charles gave his benediction and a contri-
bution of £2000 to the cause, doing so much to
strengthen the hand that was to be his enemy's. In
1631 there was another reinforcement of six thousand
men to the Protestant host. When the items of rein-
forcing parties were on a scale like this, it is easy to
see how strong a body of Scots trained soldiers the
Thirty Years' War left available.^
As the great armies on both sides gradually broke
up, Europe became sorely infested with ruffians. Not
within the memory of man had soldiers been so long
and ceaselessly inured to the great game of war, and
had so few opportunities for seeing and acquiring the
pursuits of industrial life. While the roads through-
out Germany swarmed with robbers, the Scots found
that a congenial theatre of exertion was opening for
them at home. They brought with them a wonderful
experience. Never before had such rapid progress
been made in the converse arts of destruction and
defence. All operations as to fortified places, even in
England — and of course more thoroughly in Scot-
land— were mere play beside the operations in which
^ For more information on this subject the author refers to his Scot
Abroad, ii. 134 et seq. See, too, Chambers's Domestic Annals, ii. 10, 55.
6 CHARLES I.
these men had taken part. Round some small town
in the Low Countries there might be as much appa-
ratus of fortification as all the fortified places in Scot-
land could furnish. Almost all the elements of war
— defences, artillerj^, small-arms, drilling, and disci-
pline— had been readjusted with a vast increase of effi-
ciency. The possession of a few thousands of her sons
thus trained gave Scotland the advantage over Eng-
land which a country with a standing army has over
the country which can only bring raw recruits into
action. From the fugitive nature of the Scottish
feudal array, the opportunities which other nations, in-
cluding England, had of keeping troops embodied for
a longer period, had been telling against Scotland in
the fortunes of war. Now a concurrence of afi"airs, in ■
which Scotland as a nation seemed to have no concern,
had changed the balance. At the same time, while
England had been brought under the reign of law and
order, Scotland had elements of dispeace which com-
pelled the citizen to be a soldier. The English coun-
try gentleman lived, as we have seen, in a mansion ;
but the Scots laird still required the protection of a
fortress. The Scots Borderers had not been as yet
completely quieted, and the Highlanders had become
more formidable than ever as reivers. Such were the
conditions which rendered Scotland strong, and regard-
less of the threats which found their way northwards.
In the midst of the supplications, protestations, and
other wordy warfare following on the first outbreak,
it is a significant incident that General Alexander
Leslie comes over from Sweden "in a small bark,"
having thus evaded a shij) of war, which might have
intercepted him had he come in a more conspicuous
STATE OF FORCES, 1638. 7
shape. This Leslie — not to be confounded with his
nepheAv David — was not a man of high military
genius. He had worked, however, in half the mighty
battles and sieges of the Thirty Years' War, and was so
accomplished in all the military mechanism brought to
perfection in that long contest, that no one who had
spent his clays at home in England or Scotland could
have a chance against him in the field, or compete
with him for the command of an army. It was said
that, unconscious of the destiny awaiting him, he had
come to spend his old age in peaceful retirement, and
that he had to this end. purchased an estate in Fife-
shire, in the midst of his kindred, or those whom he
chose to claim as such.^ But a casual word dropped
by the well-informed Baillie shows that when he
arrived, during the sitting of the Assembly, he had
been preparing for other things ; for he had " caused
a great number of our commanders in Germany sub-
scribe our Covenant, and provided much good muni-
tion." 2
So early as the month of June, one of the grievances
of which the Tables complained was an interruption
of the commerce of Scotland by vessels of war sailing
under the English flag, and by the interference of the
■^ Spalding, who did not highly esteem him, says : " There came out of
Germany from the wars liome to Scotland ane gentleman of base birth,
born in Balveny, who had served long and fortunately in the German
wars, and called by the name of Felt-Marschal Leslie — his excellence.
His name, indeed, was Alexander Leslie, but by his valour and good luck
attained to this title ' his excellence,' inferior to none but to the King of
Sweden, under whom he served among all his cavalry. Well, this Felt-
Marschal Leslie, having conquest [acquired] from nought honour and
wealth in great abundance, resolved to come home to his native country
of Scotland, and settle him beside his chief the Earl of Rothes." —
Memorials of the Troubles, i. 130.
2 Letters, i. 111.
8 CHARLES I.
Estates of Holland, which, at the request of the king's
English ambassador there, had set an embargo on
certain merchandise bought by Scots traders in Am-
sterdam. The excuse made for this interference was,
that the goods in question were arms and other muni-
tions of war. This could not be denied. One of
the agents in whose hands the goods were intercepted
makes explanations about having "prepared some
five hundred muskets and as many pikes, and paid
custom for them ; that he had put them in a ship,
with some two hundred muskets besides, that he had
not paid custom for."^ Still the Tables maintained
that they were free to buy what goods they pleased,
and it was a wrong done to interrupt their commerce.
This was at the time when they had themselves
placed guards to intercept any munitions that might
be conveyed to Edinburgh Castle. There was much
scornful ridicule cast at the grievances of these mer-
chants whose commerce was interrupted in the matter
of preparing to make war upon their king ; and the
whole is characteristic of that curious position ever
taken by the Covenanters — that they were loyal sub-
jects, all along performing their duty to their king
and country.
Ere this time the Covenanters were in possession
pf a revenue. A project for a " contribution " appears
among their papers so early as the month of February
1638.^ In the beginning of March a sum amounting to
670 dollars is subscribed by thirty-seven of the leaders.
The name of INIontrose appears at the head of the list,
put down for 25 dollars, the highest rate of contribu-
tion— the scale beini'- from 10 to 2.5 dollars. At the
O
^ Rothes's Relation, 170. ^ Ibid., 72.
GLASGOW ASSEMBLY, 1638. 9
same time an arrangement was completed for levying
a tax over all Scotland : " It was resolved anent the
contribution that eight shall be appointed collectors
in every shire, according to one dollar the thousand
marks of free-rent, as they can try, taking the party's
declaration whether it be more or less. The contribu-
tion is voluntary, and every one must be valued as
they are pleased voluntarily to declare the worth of
their free-rent. The half of the contribution raised in
ilk shire must be delivered to John Smith, and after
the same is spent to send for the other half."^ Of
this contribution, which was to be merely voluntary,
and to be given according to the giver's estimate of
his means, it may be said that it was a tax exacted to
the last penny with a rigid uniformity unknown before
either in England or Scotland, unless, indeed, it might
be said that in the exaction of ship-money the English
Council had achieved a like exactness. The committee
appointed to collect this tax in each county after-
wards obtained the appropriate title of "the War
Committee."^
So stood Scotland when, on the 21st of November
1638, the General Assembly opened in the cathedral
church of Glasgow. A second time that community,
which abjured all pomp and all attempt to draw
influence from external conditions, was fortunate in a
fitting stage for the enactment of a grand drama. Had
it been a great council of the old Church that was to
assemble, it could not have found any other building
in Scotland so well suited for the solemn occasion by
^ Eothes's Kelation, 80, 81.
2 See the " Minute book kept l)y the War Committee of the Cov-
enanters in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in the years 1640 and
1641;" KirkcudbriL'ht, 1855.
lO CHARLES I.
supplying conditions of time-lionoured ecclesiastical
magnificence. It was the only great church in Scot-
land which had suffered nothing save the removal or
destruction of the apparatus for the mass and the
other decorations held to savour of idolatry. It was
a meeting eminently solemn. Of the general councils
of the old Church, hallowed by the presence of digni-
taries whose rank made them princes over all Christen-
dom, and adorned by every superfluity of pomp, few
were so momentous in their influence as this gathering
together, in a small corner of Christian Europe, of a
body of men acknowledging no grades of superiority,
and indulging in none of the pomps which were the
usual companions and symbols of greatness.^
■■ There is a story told liy Spottiswood how the magistrates of Glas-
gow had agreed to sacrifice the cathedral to Andrew Melville and others
of the clergy as " a monument of idolatry," but that the city mob rose
and protected the Ijuilding. Dr M'Crie said he could find no contem-
porary trace of such an event ; and where he was baffied in such a pur-
suit nobody else need attempt it. He says : " I never met with any-
thing in the public or private writings of Mehdlle, or of any minister
contemporary with him, that gives the smallest ground for the conclusion
that they looked upon catliedral churches as monuments of idolatrj', or
that they would have advised their demolition on this ground." —
"Works, ii. 39. The Cathedi-al of St Mungo o^ved its preservation to the
wealth and liberality of the community of Glasgow. The other churches
which rivalled or excelled it — Elgin, St Andrews, the Abbey Church of
Arbroath, and others — fell to pieces through poverty. Tlie Church of
St Mungo was never completed, but its fabric was sustained in the con-
dition in which the Reformation found it. Neglect had begun to work
on it, and, as in other neglected buildings, the materials available for
sordid purposes had begun to disappear. After fruitless attempts to
obtain funds from the proper revenues of the see, on the 21st of October
1574, the provost and council, with the deans of the craft and other
public-spirited citizens, held a meeting, the result of which is thus
recorded : " Having respect and consideration to the great decay and
ruin that the High Kirk of Glasgow has come to through taking away
of the lead, slate, and other graith thereof in the troublous time bygone,
so that such a great monument will alluterly fall down and decay with-
GLASGOW ASSEMBLY, 1638. 11
The opening of the Assembly of 1638 may fairly
vie with that of the Long Parliament as a momentous
historical event. It was the earlier in time. Had it
not been, perhaps the Long Parliament also might not
have been. At that juncture, so far as England alone
was concerned, the looker-on would have said that the
Court would prevail, and that without a struggle.
The organisation for the collection of ship-money got
the prerogative out of its only remaining difficulty —
the supply of money capable of supporting a standing-
army. All things had the aspect of a monarchy
serene and absolute, such as Englishmen knew only
from specimens on the other side of the Channel.
This General Assembly takes precedence in history as
the first meeting of a body existing by constitutional
sanction, yet giving defiance to the Court. It assem-
bled under royal authority, the king being through
his Commissioner an element of its constitution.
But memorable as this Assembly is for its influence
over the history of the coming times, it stands not less
memorable as a monument of the fallacy of human
calculations. The power it achieved not only fulfilled
the expectations of its promoters, but realised, or even
exceeded, the wildest dreams of the most enthusiastic
among them. They felt as if the Almighty were
leading them on to absolute triumph, when, by a
out it be remedied, and because the helping thereof is so great and will
extend to more nor they may spare, and that they are not addebted to
the upholding and repairing thereof by law, yet of their own freewill
uncompelled, and for the zeal they bear to the Kirk, of mere alms and
liberality, all in one voice consented to a tax and imposition of two
hundred pounds money to be taxed and paid by the township and free-
men thereof, for helping to repair the said kirk and holding it water-
fast." — Burgh Records of the City of Glasgow, Maitland Club.
12 CHARLES I.
mysterious and scarce perceptible agency, the great
power of wliicli they were a portion was turned to
purposes utterly adverse to their designs. No doubt
they did not expect by their own human ^^olicy to
execute the great things that were to be done ; but
another form of presumption was visited upon them,
when they acted as those specially selected to accom-
plish the policy of the Euler of all things. A mighty
potentate of modern days said to his people, " We
are with God, and God is with us ; " and the words
of assurance had scarcely spread among them ere
shame and ruin overtook both speaker and audience.
This is but one of the forms in which presumptuous
men give their command to that future which will not
obey them. The history of the coming struggle gives
many instances in which the very confidence of suc-
cess seemed to achieve it. But, on the other hand, it
shows many others where the power created by such
confidence turned against its possessor ; and this As-
sembly was one of them.
This great council was not unadorned by rank and
pompous ceremonial, but all of this was secular. The
Lord High Commissioner, the Marquess of Hamilton,
sat on a canopied throne, surrounded by the chief
ofiicers of State. There were seventeen peers and a
large body of powerful territorial barons, who, as lay
elders, were members of the Assembly. To these a
place of honour was conceded — they sat at a long
table running down the centre of the church, while
the ministers were content to occupy seats running in
tiers up on either side. Above, in one of the aisles
apparently, there was a stage for young nobles and
men of rank not members of the Assembly, "with
GLASGOW ASSEMBLY, 1638. 13
huge numbers of people, ladies, and some gentlewomen
in the vaults above." There were one hundred and
forty ecclesiastical and one hundred lay members.
Among the ecclesiastics there were no bishops or
dignitaries, for a reason presently to be seen ■ — ■ all
were simple Ministers of the Word.
The presence of the powerful body of laymen on
this occasion naturally opens up the topic of a long
and acrid controversy about the constitution of the
Assembly. On the Cavalier and Episcopal side, it
was maintained not to be a free and fair Assembly.
There were denunciations of partiality in the organisa-
tion for the selection of its members, especially of the
lay elders. Such disputes will ever occur, but there
is no use of blurring history with them. We know
that whatever the standard of the political morality
of the time permits people to do for their party, that
they will do — nay, they must do it, under the pain
of being denounced as weak or perhaps treacherous.
The Court had power to serve its own ends in the
other Assemblies held in Perth and Aberdeen, and
they freely used the power. The Covenanters were
now masters of the situation, and they resolved to
hold a Covenanting Assembly. No one was to be a
member of it who had not taken the Covenant, and
remained true to that symbol of his faith. An at-
tempt was made to modify the severity of the qualifi-
cation by a recourse to the old Covenant or Confession
of 1580, and so omitting the bitter supplemental
document which brought the terms of that Covenant
to bear on the new grievances. But this was strenu-
ously and fiercely resisted. For a true Covenanter to
sign it, was likened to the " horrible impiety " of one
14 CHARLES I.
who had given his faith both to the Old and the New
Testament, " to sign only the Old for fear of displeas-
ing a Jewish magistrate who neglects the New." ^
The Tables undertook the working of the elections,
so as to produce a thoroughly Covenanting Assembly.
They resolved to go back upon an Act of Assembly
of the year 1597, which required each presbytery to
elect two clergymen and one lay elder, while the
royal burghs sent lay commissioners — Edinburgh two,
and the others one each. It was thus that the Lords
and other lay leaders of the Covenant came in. There
was some slight discord between the clerical " Table "
and the others on this point. The clergy could not
but see that this nominally rigid adherence to their
standards was transferring them into the hands of
new masters. They could not be blind to the reason
why the office destined for men of a religious turn
and serious walk in life was wanted for a haughty
powerful nobility, many of them profligate livers.
Among them, indeed, were men fighting their own
personal battle for the preservation of the old ecclesi-
astical estates, which they believed to be in clanger —
all had a personal dislike of the bishops, as assuming
a superiority over them. But it was in such men that
the strength of the Assembly as a hostile declaration
against the Court lay, and they prevailed in the
elections.
The Tables sent instructions to the constituencies —
some of a public character known at the time, others
of a more secret kind, which have only lately seen
the light. In these, provision was made for striking a
simple but decisive blow against the bishops. They
1 Jlonteth's Historj- of the Troubles, 29.
GLASGOW ASSEMBLY, 1638. 15
were all to be put on trial before the Assembly as
criminals, therefore they could not be members of
the Assembly, since it was the tribunal before which
they were to be tried. To carry this exclusion into the
lower grades of the Church, a minister was to be dis-
qualified from election if any one should bring a pro-
cess against him as " erroneous in doctrine or scandal-
ous in life." As a criterion for choosing the right
men, presbyteries were carefully to avoid " Chapter
men who have chosen bishops, those who have sitten
upon the High Commission, chapel men who have
countenanced the chapel ceremonies and novations,
all who have offered to read and practice the Service-
book, the Book of Canons, and ministers who are jus-
tice of peace." The Tables supplied the presbyteries
with forms of commission to be given to their repre-
sentatives, and other guidance for the transaction of
business. These instructions were accompanied by
a letter attuned to the exuberant piety of the time
and place. Besides the clerical members of the Tables,
it bore the signatures of the lay chiefs, Montrose, as
usual, taking the lead.^ He afterwards, with charac-
teristic rashness, brought some scandal on the Assem-
bly by avowing and hotly supporting the approval of
a candidate by the Tables, as if it gave his election a
legal sanction.^
A General Assembly was now a novelty, and indeed
there had been no precedent for one like this. Such a
body, before putting itself in working order, naturally
went through a preliminary phase of confusion and
mixed disputation. The old national practice of
" protestation " was so amply exercised, that, as Bail-
' Baillie's Letters, i. 469 et seq. ^ Ibid., 133.
l6 CHARLES I.
lie says, all were " wearied with tlie multitude of pro-
testations but the clerk, who with every one received
a piece of gold." The superior weight of the more
zealoi;s party carried all points, and they succeeded
in the election of Alexander Henderson as moderator
— " a moderator without moderation," as Laud called
him, in one of his efforts to be witty. Johnston of
Warriston was the clerk, and thus became instructor
and director in all things connected with form and
law.
When he took his chair of office, there came a little
dramatic incident of Avhich he was the hero. In the
long interval since Assemblies were held, the records
of the Church since the Reformation down to the
year 1590 had passed out of public sight. There was
no one officially responsible for their custody, and
there was a strong suspicion that they had got foul
play at the hands of the Episcopal party and the
Court. Johnston laid on the table certain volumes
Avhich he maintained to be these veritable records —
they had come into his possession " by the good pro-
vidence of God." A committee of the House, after
professing to have closely examined them, pronounced
them to be the authentic recoi'd of the Kirk from the
year 1560 to the year 1590.^
1 Baillie's Letters, 159, 1.39. This reporter of the business has thus
recorded his pious joy at this auspicious incident : " It is one of the
notable passages of God's providence towards our Churcli, that these
books were not destroyed or put in hands whence we should never have
drawn them ; this forty years bygone so great a desire being in the
hearts of the prince and prelates for covering in perpetual darkness of
our old Assemblies which crossed their intentions : so great negligence
on our parts to keep these monuments, that no man among us, so far as I
could ever hear, knew what was become of these books, but all took it
for granted that they were in St Andrews' possession, who would be loath
GLASGOW ASSEMBLY, 1638. 17
There was a logical difficulty about these first steps.
The validity of the elections had to be tried. How,
then, could those present elect office-bearers until it
was known whether they themselves were legal meni-
ever to let them go, or any true doiible of them ; yet God has brought
them out, and set them up now at the door of our Church, to be the
rule, after Scripture, of this Assemblie and all their proceedings." —
P. 139.
It was the fate of these books afterwards to pass through a career as
remarkable in the unexpected strangeness of its incidents as any that
has enabled people to discover that Providence has been specially at
work to create the result which pleases themselves. In this branch of
their career, however, the problem of a special providence would re-
quire to be solved from the other side, since the end was not the special
preservation, but the special destruction, of the books. When the civil
war began it was thought prudent to have a duplicate made of the
records, and place each record in a place of safety. One was preserved
in Dumbarton, the other in the fortress of the Bass. This latter was
removed to London, with other Scots records, by the Government of the
Commonwealth. What became of it is not precisely known, but it
is believed to have been lost, along -with other records, on their way to
Scotland, in a vessel ship-\^Tecked in the year 1660. The Dumbarton
copy passed from its official custodier to his representative, as private
property. It fell into the hands of Archibald Campbell, a member of
the Argyle family, and a clergyman of the nonjuring Episcopal Church
of Scotland . in Queen Anne's reign. Mr Campbell was an eccentric
man, and a collector of rare books and manuscripts, and it was in this
character that he professed to take an interest in the records. He tantal-
ised the Church authorities in Scotland with offers to restore them on
conditions which were pronounced preposterous. In the end, according
to a statement by Principal Lee, " Mr Campbell, as he had sometimes
threatened to do, took a step which was intended to put the books for
ever beyond the reach of the Church of Scotland, by entering into a
deed of trust or covenant with the President and Fellows of Sion College,
the terms of which do not appear to be accurately known to any mem-
ber of the Church of Scotland, but the effect of which has undoubtedly
been to detain these records from their lawful owners for nearly a cen-
tury past." This was written in the year 1828. In the winter of 18.34,
Principal Lee was examined by a select committee of the House of
Commons on patronage in Scotland. He desired to refer to these
records, and the all-potent order of the committee brought them to St
Stephen's. They were in the charge of an officer of the college, who
expected to take them back when they were no longer needed for the
VOL. Vlt. B
1 8 CHARLES I.
bers of Assembly ? On the other hand, how could
these nice questions be tried by a chaotic multitude
without an official staft"? The practical sense, so
conspicuous in the tactic of large assemblages in this
country, adjusted the difficulty. Let the arrangement
be made provisionally — when the Assembly has ad-
justed itself, it can rejudge its choice. Down to the
28th, election disputes were busily discussed and
promptly settled in favour of the prevailing party.
One of the questions the most promptly settled among
all was of a fundamental character. A body of the
clergy gave in a protestation against the admission
of lay elders ; but this admitted not of discussion, for
it was equivalent to a repudiation of the Assembly
itself.
Through all this business the commissioner waited
patiently. On the 29th, when the Assembly, having
put itself in order, was to begin its work, it was
known that the royal countenance was to be with-
drawn. There was a desultory conversation about
the position taken on both sides, involving the ques-
tions of clerical independence and royal supremacy,
which had been so j^rofusely reiterated. The com-
missioner then delivered a parting address, stating in
a more technical and specific manner those grounds
on which he could no longer give the royal counte-
nance to the meeting. They came under two prin-
time ; but lie was told that " the committee wished the books to lie upon
the table for their inspection, and that the committee would send for
him when they wished them to be returned." But before he was sent
for the Houses of Parliament were burned, and tlie records in them.
See the prefaces to the two editions of " the Book of the Universal Kii-k."
This title was given to a book often cited in these pages, in which a
worthy attempt was made to supply the substance of the lost records
from other and incidental sources.
GLASGOW ASSEMBLY, 1638. 19
cipal heads — first, the constitution of the Assembly,
in so far as lay elders were admitted ; second, the
form of the business before it, in as far as it professed
to hold authority over bishops, and deliberate on the
validity of the Episcopal office. A proclamation was
then published at the market-cross. It was more
diffuse than the commissioner's speech, going over
again the whole c|uarrel from the beginning, and
especially enlarging on the dictatorial conduct of the
Tables. It forbade all farther meetings of the Assem-
bly, and required all the individual members " to
depart furth of this city of Glasgow within the space
of twenty-four hours, and to repair home to their own
houses, or that they go about their private affairs in a
quiet manner." There was, of course, the usual in-
evitable protestation, and the business in hand went on.
The commissioner's departure was accompanied by
an event deemed sufficiently propitious to balance the
loss. Among the secondary questions about the con-
stitution of the Assembly, one arose on a proposal that
the officers of State and some other men of high rank
who attended the commissioner should have votes in
the Assembly as " assessors." One of these was
Archibald, Earl of Argyle. He was thirty years old.
His father, who had died in the spring of 1638,
professed the old Church. By the letter of the law
the heir Avas entitled to enjoy the estates of his Papist
father, and it was said by his enemies that he entered
on possession in his father's lifetime. But that was an
affair of the past ; he had now fully succeeded to the
honours and to the estates, or rather dominions, of his
house. His following, estimated by mere numbers, was
the greatest in Scotland — greater than even Huntly's.
20 CHARLES I.
It was rumoured tliat he could bring five thousand
men into the field. He was counted among those
favourable to the Covenant, but he was not yet a Cov-
enanter. He took the opportunity, before Hamilton's
farewell, to address the Assembly. He said he had been
sent there by the king, but he had impartially watched
their proceedings as a neutral person. " I have not,"
he said, " striven to blow the bellows, but studied to
keep matters in as soft a temper as I could ; and now
I desire to make it known to you, that I take you all
for members of a lawful Assembly and honest country-
men." He had himself, as yet, only, like others of the
Court, put his hand to the old Confession without the
protestation against the recent innovations ; but that
he had gone only so far was not to be imputed to him
as disloyal to the Covenant. Some other nobles came
forward in the same condition — they had signed the
" King's Confession," as it was called, but they were
true Covenanters — among these, Montrose, who was a
busy member of the Assembly, proclaimed the names
of the Earl of Mar and his own relation, Lord Napier.
The departure of the commissioner gave no inter-
ruption to the weighty afi'airs on hand. The first
business of moment completed by the Assembly was
the repeal or annulling of the Acts of preceding As-
semblies from 1606 downwards, including the Five
Articles of Perth. Then the Service-book, the Book of
Canons, and the Book of Ordination were severally
repudiated, for reasons of which enough has been seen
to render repetition unnecessary. Then came the great
scene of the trial of the bishops and their " declina-
ture." This was a document in which at some length
the bishops protested against the power of the Assembly
GLASGOW ASSEMBLY, 1638. 21
to deal with them, a doctrine for which men in their
position could find many obvious reasons. The
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, in the practice of its
judicatories, has ever sought the principle, that judicial
proceedings are to begin in the lower and find their
way up to the higher courts. On the present occasion
they were true to the spirit of this principle. The
"libel" or indictment against the bishops was first
laid before the Presbytery of Edinburgh, who referred
it to the Assembly. By discounting the Articles of
Perth and the several laws recently passed for the re-
storation of Episcopacy as all being null, there was
ample opportunity to show that, both in the titles and
powers they adopted, and in the ceremonials which
they practised, the bishops had acted against the laws
of the Church. But it has ever been the good fortune
of those who have from time to time raised a war of
extermination against bishops, to find that they are all
so vicious in their lives as to render unnecessary any
discussion of doctrines and ceremonies as a means of
driving them from the Church. The Tables sent
clown to the several presbyteries a list of the crimes
which it was desirable to prove against bishops — a
list which has the merit of distinctness, in the use of
terms from which the decorum of modern literature
shrinks. As Baillie remarks, with exulting candour,
on his way to join the conclave in Edinburgh, "No
kind of crime which can be gotten proven of a bishop
will now be concealed."^ The Bishop of Dunblane
being denounced as a corrupter of the people by the
spread of Arminianism, and an agent of Canterbury's,
there follows the remark, " What drunkenness, swear-
^ Letters, i. 105.
22 CHARLES I.
ing, or other crimes was libelled, I do not remember;" ^
as if these things must have been charged as a matter
of form, although the fact is forgotten.
It seems to have been felt that to speak of a virtu-
ous bishop was a logical contradiction, as if one should
say an honest swindler or a moral gambler. Guthrie,
Bishop of ]Moray, had, we are told, " all the ordinary
faults of a bishop, besides his boldness to be the first
who put on his sleeves in Edinburgh." " There was
objected against him," continues Baillie, "but, as I
suspect, not sufficiently proven, his countenancing of
a vile dance of naked women in his own house, and
of women going barefooted on pilgrimages not far
from his dwelling." " It would seem, indeed, as if
the idolatry of the old Church, sensuality, and pro-
fanity were deemed natural companions, each helping
and promoting the others. The Bishop of Edinburgh
was " a bower to the altar, a wearer of the rochet, a
consecrator of churches," and, as a natural accompani-
ment of such practices, he " made no bones of swear-
ing and cursino;." ^
The end was, that of the fourteen prelates six were
simply deposed, eight were deposed and excommuni-
cated. The moderator uttered the sentences against
them in a sermon, having for its text, " The Lord
said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool." The bystander so
often quoted has these notes and reflections on the occa-
sion : " Thereafter in a very dreadful and grave manner
he pronounced these sentences as ye have them in print.
My heart was filled with admii-ation of the power and
justice of God, who can bring down the highest and
1 Letters, i. 108. = Ibid., 164. » Ibid., 161.
GLASGOW ASSEMBLY, 163S. 23
pour shame on them, even in this world, suddenly, by
a means utterly unexpected, who will sin against Him
proudly with a uplifted hand. And withal I heartily
pitied those who Avere excommunicate, remembering
the great gifts of some and eminent places of all,
whence their ambition and avarice had pvilled them
down to the dunghill of contempt." ^
The sentence of excommunication placed the poor
men in great peril. By the letter of the law the ex-
communicated person could hold no civil rights — he
was an outlaw. When the ecclesiastical courts were
at enmity with the executive this might be an empty
threat, but now those who had thundered the excom-
munications had the power of all. As a body the
bishops sought refuge in England, throwing themselves
in utter wretchedness on the charity of their party there,
who were themselves in anxiety and peril. There was
a general clearing off of the Episcopal party among
the ordinary clergy, and it helped on the work of
weedino; that the Church was to contain within its
bosom no clergy who had not sufficient parochial work
to occupy their time.
After transacting a crowd of other affairs, chiefly for
the reconstruction of the Presbyterian Church courts,
and interesting only to those who have to deal with
these tribunals, this renowned Assembly dispersed on
the 20th of December.^
A change now comes over the spirit of our history.
A few casual controversies may continue to interrupt
1 Letters, i. 168.
'' The test collection of materials for the history of the Assembly of
1638 is to he found in Peterkin's 'Records of the Kirk of Scotland,
containing the Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies from
the year 1638 downwards.'
24 CHARLES I.
the path ; but we are now free of that complex laby-
rinth of political and polemical wrangling which has
to be traced through the dense mass of State papers
and pamphlets of the day, and we come forth into the
open field of war. The sword was first drawn in the
north — Scot against Scot. Between the signing of
the Covenant and the holding of the Assemlily, the
Tables had determined to subdue the city of Al^erdeen
and the district around it, and to compel the peo23le
there to sign the Covenant. A committee of clergymen,
with the Earl of Montrose as their leader or chairman,
was sent northwards to deal with these uncovenanted
people. There were among the clergy three eminent
men — the great Henderson, David Dickson, and
Andrew Cant, a clergyman of Aberdeenshire, whose
zeal for the Covenant appears to have been heated
and hardened by the antagonistic pressure of his
prelatical neighbours. The capital of the north was
famous for its hospitality, and every distinguished
stranger was welcomed by the corporation to a wine-
banquet, or " cup of bon-accord," as it was termed,
in tlie words of the motto on the corporation arms.
When this hospitality was offered to the new visitors
it was " disdainfully refused." They would not have
fellowship with the uncovenanted. " They would
drink none with them till first the Covenant was sub-
scribed." This was an insult " whereof the like Avas
never done to Aberdeen in no man's memory." The
materials for the feast were distributed among the
city paupers, a disposal which had a touch of disdain
in it.^
The three clerical commissioners desired to occupy
^ Spalding's Memorials, i. 91, 92.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1638-39. 25
the city pulpits next Sunday, but the clergymen to
whom these belonged thought fit to use them for their
own ordinary ministrations. The visitors had one im-
portant supporter in the district, the Earl Marischal,
whose winter hotel was in the centre of the town, and
in the place now known as Marischal Street. The
house had wooden benches or galleries in front, and
there the three ministers preached in succession, judi-
ciously occupying the intervals between the regular
church services. The community of this isolated
district, with the group of scholars belonging to its
cathedral and colleges, and its Episcopalian tastes, was
liker to one of the smaller cathedral towns of Eng-
land than any other part of Scotland was. Hence
the ways of the new-comers were as strange and pecu-
liar there as they would have been in Canterbury.^
The strangers had a considerable audience, but an
audience neither sympathetic nor reverential. So
each party, with very little trouble, had managed to
cast tokens of bitter desjjite at the other.
The strife Avhich had thus been sown first broke
forth in print. The attack was begun by six of the
Aberdeen clergy — John Forbes of Corse ; Robert Baron,
Professor of Divinity ; Alexander Scrogie ; William
Leslie, Principal of King's College ; John Sibbald, and
Alexander Ross. They were all men of ability and
learning ; but three of their names had a wide renown
— Forbes, Baron, and Ross ; the last will perhaps be
remembered more for its curious service in helping
Butler to a two-syllabled rhyme, than for its owner's
works, though they had in their day considerable re-
nown. These began by issuing ' General Demands
1 Spalding's Memorials, i. 92 ; Gordon's Soots Affairs, i. 84.
26 CHARLES I.
concerning the late Covenant, propounded by the Min-
isters and Professors of Divinity in Aberdeen to some
Reverend Brethren who came thither to recommend
the late Covenant to them, and to those who were com-
mitted to their charge.' The controversy spread over
several papers on both sides ; and the whole of them
were arranged and printed by " the Aberdeen Doctors,"
as they were called, under the nomenclature of the
stages in a suit of law. To the Demands there were
" Answers," to these came " Eeplies " by the Doctors ;
then second Answers, and finally " Duplies " by the
Doctors. A piece of dry humour was no doubt in-
tended in these titles ; but it is not likely to be en-
joyed in the present day, nor are the papers in sub-
stance very attractive. The position taken by the
Doctors is the unassailable one of the dry sarcastic
negative. AVhatever the Covenant might be — good or
bad — and whatever right its approvers had to bind
themselves to it, how were they entitled to force it
on those who desired it not ? And when their adver-
saries became eloquent on its conformity to Scripture
and the privileges of the Christian Church, the Doctors
ever went back to the same negative position — even if
it were so, which we do not admit, yet why force it
upon lis ? ^
^ Tlie " Doctors " had the gratification to receive from the king a
brief but favourable criticism of their part in tlie controversy. They
were commended for tlieir loyal service, and particularly for " hindering
some strange ministers" from preaching in their churches. The king
said he had not had time to consult some of their own profession, whose
judgment he p)roposed to ask on their merits ; but from his " own read-
ing of them ■' — he does not say how far it had gone — he says, " we do hold
them, both with learning and a peaceable moderate style, answerable to
men of your profession and place."— Documents, Spalding's Memorials,
i. 98, 99.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. Z^
The commissioners having canvassed the town and
county of Aberdeen, retm-ned with a scanty list of
adherents to the Covenant. It gradually increased,
however ; for there was a political party there, as well
as elsewhere, to whom it was convenient. Some who
chafed rmder the power of the Gordons — such as the
Frasers, the Forbeses, and the Keiths, whose chief, the
Earl Marischal, had already helped the Covenanters —
ultimately joined them, to the weakening of Huntly's
power. Early in the year 1639, the Tables, who saw
a greater war before them, resolved to deal, in the first
place, with the malignants of the north, and relieve
themselves from an enemy in the rear. A fine small
army of some three or four thousand men was thus
gathered and disciplined under the command of Mon-
trose, w^th the experienced Leslie as his lieutenant.
In February, and before it had been put in marching
order, the commander heard that the few friends of
his cause in Aberdeenshire were to meet in Turriff, on
the border of Banffshire, then a market-town of some
importance, but now a mere village. He heard, also,
that the Gordons were to assemble in force to disperse
them; and he resolved, by one of those bold and ori-
ginal acts in which his strength lay, to protect his
friends. Taking with him not quite two hundred men,
he moved this light body, by the unfrequented drove-
roads of the uplands, across the Grampians, by Fetter-
cairn and the Cairn 0' Month, and had them placed
behind the churchyard- wall of Turriff, as a breast-work
to them, before the Gordons arrived. These were a
large body — two thousand, it was said — with Huntly
at their head. He, so far as the king was concerned,
had been named the royal lieutenant in the north ; but
28 CHARLES I.
lie shrank from then drawing the first bk)od, though
he might have been secure of victory; and allowed the
Covenanters to have their way. It was said that there
was a policy in his abstinence. He had been instructed
not to proclaim his lieutenancy until some great emer-
gency occurred. The Turriff meeting was in the mid-
dle of February, and he proclaimed his commission a
month later. It was desirable that he should forbear
until the royal forces were at hand, lest, if he came
to issue with the strong army of the Covenanters
while free to act, it might crush him, and extinguish
the only available ally whom the royal army was to
find in Scotland.^ At the same time, his authority was
in an awkward position. His commission as lieuten-
ant had been "stopped at the Seals." It had not
received, and was not now likely to receive, official
attestation, as sealed and certified by the proper Gov-
ernment officers.^ Meanwhile the citizens of Aber-
deen were fortifying their town, and the general tone
of tacit menace in the district prompted the Tables to
strike a blow in the north before their hands became
full elsewhere. The force at their disposal was too
overwhelming to be safely resisted. It is said that
nine thousand marched northwards, and were joined
by two thousand from those families who were
' Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 2U1, 313, 314 ; Spalding's Memorials, i.
145. " A commission for the lieutenancy of the north of Scotland was
sent to the Marquis of Huntly ; but he was ordered to keep it up as long
as possible, and carefully to observe two things. One was, not to be the
first aggressor, except he were highly provoked, or his majesty's authority
signally affronted; the other was, that he should keep oft' with long wea-
pons till his majesty were on the Borders, lest, if he should begin sooner,
the Covenanters might overwhelm him with their whole force, and either
ruin him or force him to lay down his arms." — Burnet's Memoirs, 113.
" Spalding's Memorials, i. 168.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 29
zealous against the house of Gordon, if not for the
Covenant.
The town - clerk of Aberdeen, whose descriptive
powers had probably been exercised on inventories of
furniture and commodities, brings before our eyes this
well-ordered army with a distinctness such as we
often seek vainly in the pompous technical narratives
of those who profess an acquaintance with military
science. Perhaps his very ignorance of the apparatus
of war, and the novelty of the sight, made its impres-
sion on his mind all the clearer : " They came in order
of battle, well armed, both on horse and foot, ilk horse-
man having five shot at the least, where he had ane
carbine in his hand, two pistols by his side, and other
two at his saddle-tor. The pikemen in their ranks, with
pike and sword ; the musketeers in their ranks, with
musket, musket-staff, bandeleer, sword, powder, ball,
and match. Ilk company, both on horse and foot, had
their captains, lieutenants, ensigns, sergeants, and other
officers and commanders, all for the most part in buffle
coats and goodly order. They had five colours or en-
signs, whereof the Earl of Montrose had one, having
this motto drawn in letters, ' Foe. Religion, the Co-
venant, AND THE Country.' The Earl Marisal had
one, the Earl of Kinghorn had one, and the town of
Dundee had two. They had trumpeters to ilk com-
pany of horsemen, and drummers to ilk company of
footmen. They had their meat, drink, and other pro-
visions, bag and baggage, carried with them. — Done all
by advice of his excellency Felt-Marshal Leslie, whose
counsel General Montrose followed in this business.
Now, in seemly order and good array, this army came
forward and entered the burgh of Aberdeen about ten
30 CHARLES I.
hours in the morning, at the Over-Kirkgate Port, syne
came down through the Broadgate, through the Castle-
gate, out at the Justice Port to the Queen's Links di-
rectly." 1
The Covenanting clergy now got possession of the
Aberdeen pulpits, A\'here, in the month of April, they
were al^le to proclaim against the bisliop the doom that
had been pronounced in December. He and all other
persons of note who would not take the Covenant had
iled from the town. Those who remained submitted
quietly to the test, whether with sincerity or not. All
things were orderly. No plundering was allowed.
The community were required to compel the suspic-
ious people to furnish provisions, but they were paid
for. A contribution of ten thousand marks was levied
on the community at large, out of which the individ-
ual creditors of the army were paid. The ten thou-
sand marks were accepted as a dramatic surprise in
relief from a penal impost of ten times the amount.
The poor provost, when the first demand was made,
said it was impossible to raise a hundred thousand
marks. On this " the general nobly said : ' Since ye
have subscribed our Covenant, we think us all but one ;
therefore we will not take so great a sum from you,
upon condition ye contribute with us in this our good
cause since the beginning, and in time coming Avith
men and moneys as occasion shall offer ; and in the
mean time give up the names of your neighbours who
have fled the town for fear of us, that we may plunder
their goods at our pleasure during their absence, and
likewise with all convenient speed to go fortify your
blockhouse with men and cannon, and other necessaries
' Spalding's Memorials, i. 154.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 31
for defence of foreign invasion, if it shall happen at the
water-month ; and withal to lay us down ten thousand
marks for support of our army's charges." ^ As appro-
priate to Montrose's reasonable clemency, it must be
noted that when Aberdeen sent commissioners to re-
present the town at " the Tables," these laid a fine of
forty thousand marks on their community " for their
outstanding against them and their Covenant." ^
Argyle sent five hundred of his Highlanders to swell
the Covenanting force in Aberdeen. It did not suit
the policy of the commander at that time to be assisted
by such inveterate marauders. He therefore stationed
them where they could conveniently foray on the
lands of the Irvines and other malignants. This was
a happy arrangement. They were at hand in case of
need, they supported themselves, and they chastised
the enemy. When the business was completed, and a
strong organisation established, it was deemed safe to
bring them into quarters assigned to them in the city,
with strong injunctions to abstain from mischief So,
just before the departure of the main body of the army,
they A^^ere marched from the ground, "where they
wanted not abundance of beef, mutton, and other good
fare for little pay, in order of battle, with bagpipes
and Highland arms."^ On the 12th of April the
infantry marched southwards imder Leslie ; and it is
noted by the town-clerk, "Thus Felt Leslie marched
upon Good Friday ; but in none of the Aberdeens was
there preaching, as was used before upon Good Friday,
according to the Perth Articles — such was the change
of time." ^
1 Spalding's Memorials, i. 167. "" Ibid., 172.
3 Ibid., 166. ' Ibid., 168.
32 CHARLES I.
Himtlv, findiuo; that, unless he received aid from the
king — and that -n-as now unlikely to come soon — he
would speedily be overwhelmed, desired to make what
terms he could with safety and honour, and proposed
to hold a meeting with ^lontrose. They met twice
in a place selected as safe for the purpose, each with
eleven followers, and all armed no further than with
the indispensable sword. Huntly \A'ished to conform
to existing conditions without actually humiliating
himself to sign the Covenant. He and his Protestant
friends were content to acknowledge the old Confes-
sions, and to subscribe a document maintainino- the
king's authority, " together with the liberties both of
Church and State — of religion and laws." He pro-
posed a course for the co-operation even of the Papists
of the north, " they subscribing a declaration of their
willingness to concur with the C*ovenanters of main-
tainino- the laws and liberties of the kingdom." ^
In point of policy this was a promising bargain to
the Tables — it secured to them the neutrality, if not
the active assistance, of the only force that could
elFeetually trouble them at home in co-operation with
an English invasion. How the zealous Covenanters
might take it, and how Montrose, when he accepted
the terms, counted upon their conduct, are among the
smaller mysteries of history.
It was desirable that, to complete the arrangements,
Huntly should come to Aberdeen. He was now no
longer an enemy, and the exceeding caution of the
previous meetings was unnecessary. Still there might
be quarrels and difficulties ; and he required a safe-
conduct, insuring his life and liberty. It was signed
1 Spa.ldm<,''s Memorials, i. 157, 160 ; Gordon's Scuts Affairs, ii. 233.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639, 33
by Montrose and some others.^ Huntly had been
in Aberdeen some two or three days, hospitably enter-
tained in the house of the Laird of Pitfodels, when he
began to have an unpleasant sensation that his steps
were watched and his abode guarded. When he
sovxght an explanation, the end was that he found he
was to be removed to Edinburgh. Nominally he
went of his own freewill, but really as entirely a
prisoner as the genteel criminal who, to save appear-
ances, is permitted to drive with his captor in a car-
riage to prison. On this transaction a question has
been debated, whether, on the one hand, it was a bold
stroke of treachery, devised and executed by Mon-
trose ; or, on the other, it was a surrender of his own
naturally honourable nature to the stronger and un-
scrupulous will of Huntly's personal enemies. On
neither side is there anything to found on better than
the account of the town-clerk of Aberdeen, and the
best that can be done for the reader is to give his story.
He tells how Montrose asked the marquess to shake
hands with the deadly enemy of his house, Fren-
draught, and put several other points, which are called
" frivolovis," until at last he turned to his great pur-
pose, and said : " ' My lord, seeing we are all now
friends, will ye go south to Edinburgli with us ? ' The
marquis, seeing his purpose, answered quickly : ' My
lord, I am here in this town upon assurance that I
would come and go at my own pleasure but [without]
molestation or inquietation. And now I see by con-
dition my lodging was guarded that I could not come
' " Huntly's desire was granted, and an assurance sent him under the
chief men's hands, especially Montrose's, that he should he free to re-
turn."— Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 235.
VOL. VIT. C
34 CHARLES I.
out nor in. And now by expectation ye would take
myself — who is here and bidden here by your lordship,
in quiet manner, merry and glad — and carry me to
Edinburgh whether I would or not. This, in my
sight, seems not fair nor honourable.' Always says
he, ' My lord, give me my bond whilk I gave you at
Inverurie, and ye shall have ane answer ; ' whilk the
general obeyed, and delivered to the marquis. Then
he said, ' Whether will ye take me south as ane cap-
tive, or willingly of my own mind % ' The general
answered, ' Make your choice.' Then he said, ' I will
not go as ane captive, but as ane volunteer ; ' where-
upon he comes to door, hastily goes to his own lodg-
ing, where he finds the same strictly guarded with
musketeers." ^
Some of Huntly's friends besought Montrose to
leave a hostage for him, but this he refused. The mar-
c[uess had been attended by two of his sons — the Lord
Gordon, the eldest, and his brother, the Lord Aboyne
— who were persuaded by their kindred to return to
Strathbogie. On reaching Edinburgh the marquess
was secured in the castle. This transaction cast a
shadow on the destinies of Montrose, and crossed his
path towards objects very different from those on
which he was dreaming as an unscrupulous promoter
of the Covenant. One who had good opportunities of
knowing how Huntly felt tells us : " For Montrose
going along with that action it is most certain, to the
best of my knowledge — for I write this knowingly —
that it bred such a distaste in Huntly against Mon-
trose, that afterwards, when Montrose fell off to the
king and forsook the Covenanters, and was glad to
' Spalding's Memorials, i. 170.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 35
get the assistance of Huntly and his followers, the
Marquis of Huntly could never be gained to join
cordially with him, nor to swallow that indignity.
This bred jars betwixt them in the carrying on of the
war, and that which was pleasing to the one was
seldom pleasing to the other. Whence it came to
pass that such as were equally enemies to both (who
knew it well enough) were secured, and in end pre-
vailed so far as to ruinate and destroy both of them,
and the king by a consequent." ^
At the moment the achievement appeared to be a
success, since it shook and Aveakened the combination
which formed the Cavalier strength in the north.
One must keep in view the peculiar and complex
structure of the organisation of which Huntly was the
head, to know how chaotic and purposeless it might
become when that head was gone. The removal of
a king from a well-organised independent state might
have less influence, because naturally the organisation
would be sufficiently sound to work for him iu his
absence. On the other hand, if the head of a clan
got into trouble — a frequent occurrence — the heir or
next in command would get the obedience of the elan.
The clansmen held of such a leader by pure loyalty ;
but the greater portion of the force commanded by
Huntly was kept together not by loyalty to him but
by policy — the policy of combining for mutual aid
against the Government and the rival house of
Argyle. Within that combination were all manner
of subordinate jealousies and hatreds. There were
Lowland families of ancient blood, who could say they
were as good as the proud Gordons themselves, and
^ Gorflon's Scots Affairs, ii. 238.
2,6 CHARLES I.
were bitterly jealous of each other, and repudiative of
any other leader but the great marquess, towards whom
they took the position rather of allies acknowledging
leadership than of vassals acknowledging obedience.
There was a still more difficult and dangerous element
in the wild Highland tribes, with whom Argyle was
trafficking to consolidate an influence from his centre
of government at Inverary, while Huntly was doing
the same from Strathbogie. It was the rehearsal, on a
small scale, but in a far more tangible shape, of that
competition between the Kussian and the British in-
fluence which politicians have professed to find in
the territories of Central Asia between Russia and
Hindustan. Then there was through and through the
whole mountain district such a ramification of hered-
itary quarrels and old wrongs standing over for ven-
geance, that the most diligent of the local and gene-
alogical historians become confused in the attempts to
trace them. Sometimes the feud lay between a clan
in Argyle's interest and another in Huntly's, and
indeed was the cause of their thus drawing ofi" into
opposite camps. But sometimes the two enemies
belonged to the same organisation, which their bicker-
ings continually disturbed. It has to be added that
all were inveterate thieves, and when temptation fell
in their way did not always distinguish with proper
nicety their allies from their enemies.^
1 Take, for instance, some of the elements in a general meeting at
Strathbogie of the Lowlanders of Aberdeensliire and the Highland fol-
lowing of Huntly, "the most part of Lochaber only excepted, whom
Argyle either tampered with or forced to keep home." With those who
came "likewise joined James Grant, a son of the family of Carron on
Spey side, with some twenty of his followers. This gentleman had been
an outlaw several years before, upon a private account, which was, that
his nephew, John Grant of Carron, had been killed by a near neighbour
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 37
Huntly's second son, the Lord Aboyne, acted as
head of the house and of the confederation, and for
his assistance was invested by the king's writ with
his father's office of Lieutenant; but he was young, and
without capacity to overcome the disorganising influ-
ences. The king gave him an order on Hamilton for
two thousand of the men on board his vessels ; but the
order was of no avail — the two thousand men were not
to be had ; and it was said that Hamilton, premon-
ished of the order, had sent them back to England.
This was all the more irritating, that the kidnapping
of the chief had created deep resentment ; and when
it was known that Hamilton Avas in the Forth with a
gentleman, John Grant of Ballandallach, which, slaughter was so re-
sented by James Grant, that for to prosecute the revenge thereof he
wilfully turned outlaw, and had been prisoner in Edinburgh Castle not
long before, and had made his escape thence ; but being well descended,
and cousin to Huntly on his mother's side, he was protected in the coun-
try, all being his friends almost, and at this time owned by Aboyne,
although the Covenanters took occasion thence to traduce Aboyne and
that party for taking such associates by the hand.
" They got greater ground to speak against bim by Aboyne his taking
under his protection one John Macgregor, a Rannoch man born (known
by the Irish nickname of John Dow Geare), and a notorious robber; yet
was he and his followers, about twenty- four arrant thieves and cut-
throats, taken into the party. The addition of all this, as it contributed
little to the service, so it gave great occasion to the Covenanters to upbraid
Aboyne, who, being young and inexperienced, was persuaded thereto by
such as either looked not to his honour, or wilfully strove to affront
him. And the wiser and most sober of his friends were very ill satisfied
therewith, and so much the rather that these two bandits, though both
of them were willing to serve Aboyne, yet they could not agree together,
but wherever they met they were like to fall to blows with their com-
panies, and could hardly be kept asunder. The reason whereof was,
because James Grant had killed one Patrick Macgregor, brother to the
Laird of Macgregor, who had undertaken (by warrant from the Privy
CouncU) for to kill or retake James Grant. This slaughter was as much
resented by the Clangregor (according to their Highland form) as Car-
ron's slaughter was resented by James Grant." — Gordon's Scots Affairs,
ii. 257, 258.
38 CHARLES I.
Jleet, the opportunity seemed to have come for stnkmg
a blow.^
An incident had the effect of drawing these Cava-
liers into common action. The Covenanters of the
north resolved to assemble in force, and to that end
they again selected Turriff, as so far from the centre of
the Gordon power that it was neutralised by others.
They were to meet on the 13th of May, and to remain
as a centre round which their brethren would gather
until the 21st, when they would begin to act. The
Gordons, assembled in some numbers in Strathbogie,
resolved to strike at once, and marched to Turriff on
the same evening. The Covenanters were numbered
at twelve hundred — their assailants were about as
many; but they had what greatly enhanced their effec-
tive force — four brass field-pieces. The assailants had
three commanders, each doing his best; but it was
their chief good fortune that one of the three, Eobert
Johnston of Crimond, "had been brought up in the
war, and wanted neither gallantry nor resolution."
They showed so much science, that instead of rushing
^ This is a rather perplexing story. It is thus tohi hy a contem-
porary not prejudiced against the Royalist side, and with good means of
information : " The king gave a new warrant and patent of lieutenancy
unto Aboyne in place of his father, and an order to Hamilton, who was
then lying in the Firth of Forth, for to deliver to Aboyne two thousand
of the land soldiers, whom he commanded Hamilton for to transport
and land safe in Aberdeen. But Hamilton, who had quick intelligence
of all that passed about the king's hand, being advertised hereof, upon
pretext of scarcity of victuals and sickness, sends back these two
thousand men for England before Aboyne came to him with the king's
order ; so that when Aboyne came to the Forth to Hamilton he was
heartily welcomed and feasted, it's true, and many volleys shot off at
drinking the king's health ; but it was showed him that the men were
gone, and all that Aboyne could procure was four brass field-pieces and
some tield-officers, and some small quantity of ammunition." — Gordon's
Scots Affairs, ii. 265, 266.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 39,
on the village by the east end of its one street, which
was nearest to them, they passed deliberately round
to the west, where attack was easier and safer. The
Covenanters were surprised — some in bed, others en-
joying themselves — and even the delay in the attack
did not give them time to form. Hence, when the
street was swept by a volley of musketry and a few
discharges from the field-pieces, they dispersed and
left the town in the hands of the assailants. It was
a small afi'air — two men on the assailed and one
on the assailing side killed. Yet it became memor-
able in local history as " the Trot of Turriff; " and it
had some claim to commemoration, since in that dis-
tant village the first blood in the great civil war was
spilt. It was remembered, too, in the north, though
the many turns in the mighty conflict drove it out of
memory elsewhere, that it was on the side of the Cava-
liers that the sword was first drawn. ^
Among the incidents of the excitement naturally
raised by this triumph, one was in itself a small romance
of a character peculiarly Highland. Lord Ludovic or
Lewis Gordon, the third son of Huntly, was, as we are
told, a young boy at school in Strathbogie with his
grandmother. 2 On hearing of the Trot of Turriff he
" broke away from his grandmother, and had forsaken
the school and his tutor, leaping over the walls so hazard-
ously as he went near to break one of his arms." ^ He
wandered up to the hills, and came back the leader of a
horde of Highlanders from Strathdee, Braemar, Strath-
^ The parson of Eothiemay gives a miirate account of tlie stages of the
short conflict, giving individual particulars, down to the minister wan-
dering distractedly ahout his church while the huUets passed through
the roof. Scots Affairs, ii. 256-58. See also Spalding's Memorials, i. 185.
^ Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 238. ^ Ibid., 261.
40 CHARLES I.
earn, and Glenlivet. They had cro^A'ded rapturously
round the princely boy, for such he was to them. The
king's Court had ever been too far off, even at Holyrood,
for distinct vision by the Highlanders, and now it was
farther off still. To this portion of them Strathbogie
was their court. It was noted as one of the marvels
of his escapade that the boy presented himself to the
mountaineers " in Highland garb." This is perhaps
the first occasion on which any person of high rank is
mentioned as so attired. Thus Lewis Gordon seems,
unwittingly perhaps, to have solved a problem practi-
cally applied in later times, that the nearest way to the
heart of this peculiar people is to attire some person
of illustrious rank in their peculiar garb. What it was
at that time we do not well know, but it doubtless
differed widely from the regulation Highland uniform
of the present day. So, in Spalding's words, he and
his followers, " upon Friday, the 7th of June, marched
in brave order, about a thousand men on horse and
foot, well armed, brave men, with captains, command-
ers, and leaders, trumpets, drums, and bagpipes."
Thus was this youth the commander of a body of
troops the most irregular of irregulars — a post requir-
ing great experience and peculiar military sagacity.
How it fared with him in his command we are not
precisely told ; but we know that, swollen by this ac-
cession, the general body of Cavaliers, Highland and
Lowland, dreamed of striking some great blow against
the Covenanters southward of Aberdeenshire. They
marched down Deeside, and turned to the right,
menacing the Earl Marischal's great fortress of Dun-
nottar. Prudence jorevailed, however, and abandon-
ing an enterprise so hoj)eless, they returned to the
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 4'
Gordon country by the easiest method — dispersing
and reuniting. Thus they left the south side of the
Dee, achieving notliing " except that the Highlanders
plundered the country coming or going — a thing very
usual with them." ^
In the north " the Barons," as their leaders were
now called, reassembled in such strength as to threaten
annihilation to the Covenanting party beyond the
Spey, and it was deemed necessary that Montrose
should return to punish them. As he passed through
Aberdeen for this purpose, his army performed a pecu-
liar feat long remembered in the district — the execu-
tion of a multitude of dogs found wandering after the
practice of the species in the streets. This act was
not without its provocative cause. At their former
visit to the town, through what was called a " Avhimsy"
of their commander, each Covenanting soldier was
decorated with a blue ribbon. It had taken the
fancy of the Cavalier damsels of Aberdeen to adorn
their dogs with a precise duplicate of this device, and
so distinguished were the offending animals found on
the return of the great leader and his army.^
' Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 262.
° Spalding's Memorials, i. 195. Blue is the Presbyterian colour down
to this day ; and if Spalding's story be true, this affair was the cause of the
adoption : " Here it is to be noted that few or none of this whole army
wanted ane blue ribbon hung about his craig [neck] down under his left
arm, whilk they called the Covenanter^ s ribhon,hecau.se the Lord Gordon
and some other of the marquis's bairns and family had ane ribbon, when
he was dwelling in the town, of ane red flesh-colour, which they wore in
their hats, and called it iJie royal ribbon, as a sign of their love and
loyalty to the king. In despite or derision whereof tliis blue ribbon
was worn, and called the Covenanter's ribbon, by the hail soldiers of this
army, and would not hear of the royal ribbon — such was their pride and
malice."— P. 154.
The parson of Rothiemay says of the Covenanting army which crossed
42 CHARLES I.
]\lontrose marched westward towards the Gordon
country. The parson of Eothiemay notes that he
stabled his troop-horses in the church of Udny, " a
practice then unusual, though afterwards it grew to
be more in fashion to turn churches to stables." ^
When he reached the ground on which he had in-
tended to fight it out with the Barons he could not
find his enemy. The Highlanders, with their usual
nimbleness, had dived into their mountain recesses, to
come forth again instantly when wanted. The leaders,
with small bodies of picked men, had each shut him-
self up in his own strong house or castle. Montrose
now formed the project of destroying these strong-
holds one by one. He began with the Tower of
Gight. It was defended by Johnston, the victor at
Turriff, one of the officers trained in the foreign wars,
and threatened a tough resistance. Montrose had no
siege-train, and his small field-pieces had little effect
on the thick stone walls. He set himself down, how-
ever, for a^^steady siege, in which he worked for two
days, when, suddenly changing his purpose, he broke
up his camp, and retreated to Edinburgh as rapidly as
if an enemy had been at his heels.
This was a mistake caused by false information.
He learned that Aboyne, with his commission as
the Tweed next year : " And now the blue ribbons and blue caps had
opened the door in the north of England, and the Covenant colours
came triumphantly displayed to Newcastle. For it is to be known that,
as the last year, so in this new expedition, the Scottish officers mostly
wore blue bonnets out of contempt of the English, who scoffingly called
them ' Blue-caps.' And they carried blue ribbons either in their caps or
hung about them, and their spanners thereto appended like an order
of knighthood, the Royalists wearing red ribbons in opposition of that
colour." — Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 260.
' Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 264.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 43
Lieutenant, had brought a fleet into the roadstead of
Aberdeen having a land-force on board. He knew
that Aboyne had got an order from the king for two
thousand men, but did not know that the order had
been ineffectuaL^ As to Aboyne's fleet, it was repre-
sented by a sorry collier-ship from the Tyne and two
pinnaces. They carried the contribution supplied by
Hamilton under the king's order, and landed some
brass cannon and other munitions, and a few trained
oflicers, the most important among whom was Crowner
or Colonel Griin, a native of Caithness, who had served
abroad.^
The retreat of Montrose did far more for the cause
of the northern Cavaliers than the assistance brought
by Aboyne. The dispersed army of the Barons again
gathered round Strathbogie, and Aboyne was able to
march on Aberdeen with some two thousand footmen
and fi-ve hundred horse. He had a copy of the Eng-
lish oath of allegiance to the king ; this he proclaimed
on his way, and tendered for signature as an anti-
Covenant declaration. Aberdeen was now again at
the command of the Cavaliers, and those who had
taken the Covenant, and continued to adhere to it, had
to disappear. A curious and expressive chapter of
local history might be filled by a description of the
revolutions of " the gude toun " alternately under the
^ See above, p. 37.
^ Gun's career was a fair type of the fortunes of the more successful
of the Scots officers who served abroad. According to tlie historian of
the house of Sutherland, who says tliat Gun was born in that county,
he returned to Germany, became a major-general in the imperial army
and a baron of the empire, marrying " a rich and noble lady Ijeside the
imperial city of Ulm, upon the Danube" (Note, Gordon's Scots Affairs,
ii. 266). It will be seen that he was not likely to have obtained high
preferment at home.
44 CHARLES I.
military. domination of either party. The poor town-
clerk laments over this hard fate as exceptional to the
peace enjoyed by the other towns: "No doubt but
this vexation was grievous to Aberdeen to be over-
thrown by ilk party who by might and strength could
be master of the fields, whereas all the other burghs
within Scotland lived first and last at great rest and
quietness."-^
As we shall presently see, the Tables — now a strong
settled central government — were solemnly preparing
to measure swords with England, or with so much of
England as the king could command. AVith all the
rest of Scotland fairly in hand, and contributing their
due proportion of taxes and levies for the great national
war, it w^as provoking to find so tough an obstacle in
one corner of the country. Critical as the position
Avas of the army in the south, it was necessary, before
the situation became still more critical, to send a force
sufficient to crush an opposition which, in the general
unanimity in which their policy prevailed elsewhere,
had naturally taught them to consider the Cavahers
of the north as traitors to their country's cause.
The knowledge which experience had given Mon-
trose of the duty to be done marked him as the proper
commander of the expedition, and he marched north-
wards in the middle of June. It happened that his
enemies came so far to meet him. Having an officer
of experience like Gun to command them, the Cav-
aliers in Aberdeen took the strong step of a march
southwards, that, picking up adherents as they went,
they might come upon the rear of the Covenanting
force in the south, while the English Eoyalist army
' Memorials, i. 186.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 45
was dealing with tliem in front. The ordnance,
powder, and heavy baggage for this expedition were to
be conveyed along the coast in the three ships brought
by Aboyne ; but in a storm off shore these drifted out
to sea, and were heard of no more. When the Cava-
liers had reached the Castle of Muchalls, five miles to
the north of Stonehaven, Montrose was two miles on
the other side, sheltered by Dunnottar, the great for-
tress of his ally the Earl Marischal. All seemed ready
for a critical battle ; and that something almost worse
than a defeat befell the Cavaliers was attributed to the
treachery of Gun, their leader. Their array is thus
told : " The van was given to a troop of volunteer
gentlemen cuiraciers, about one hundred in number,
who for the colours carried a handkerchief upon a
lance. These wanted nothing to have made them
serviceable but some oflficer to lead them who had
had more honesty than Colonel Gunne. The citizens
of Aberdeen got the first place of all the foot, who
had there a foot regiment of gallant firemen, well
appointed, to the number of about four hundred.
The Highlanders had the rear, and other troops of
horses were put to the wings of the foot."^
Either through accident or false strategy it befell
that these Highlanders did the work of the enemy.
The cannon — " the musket's mother," as they then
called it — was an arm of war which they would not
meet. The near roar of artillery at once dispersed
them. It was not that they were influenced so much
by ordinary fear, as by a superstition that the dreadful
sound warned them of a force which man must not
dare to resist. Montrose Avas strong in ordnance,
1 Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 271.
46 CHARLES I.
having been supplied from Dunnottar. A party of the
Covenanters advanced beyond their lines as if to at-
tack the Cavaliers, then suddenly turned, and rapidly
retreated as if in flight. They were followed, and
thus the Highlanders were brought in front of a
cannonade, with the natural result. While yet un-
touched themselves they beheld some casualties from
the cannonade among their allies. One gun carried a
twenty-pound ball, "Avhich so affrighted the High-
landers, who stood farthest off, that, without expecting
any word of command, they ran off all in a confusion,
never looking behind them till they were got into a
moss or fast ground near half a mile distant from the
Hill of Meager." The rest of the force became un-
steady and disappeared. It was not a retreat, for no
order was kept ; nor a flight, for there was no pursuit ;
but a dispersal, each seeking his own home. And so
" this," says the historian of the affair, " is that action
known so well afterwards under the name of the Eaid
of Stonehive, so ridiculously and grossly managed
that in all the war nothing can be recounted like it." ^
The sole hope for the Cavalier party in Aberdeen
now lay in holding the bridge over the Dee — a work
of seven arches, narrow and crooked, as bridges were
in that day. To this spot such of the scattered force
as could again be gathered was brought. What de-
fence-works of turf and stone the short time permitted
were run up at the south end. They were so strong
and well served that for a whole day the cannon as-
sailed them, and swept the bridge in vain. Next day
Montrose tried a strategy of so simple and transparent
a kind, that its success, in the face of trained soldiers,
^ Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 275.
CONFLICT IN THE NORTH, 1639. 47
was attributed to the treachery of the Cavalier com-
mander. The Covenanting army appeared to be
ascending the river to cross by a neighbouring ford.
The other party went to defend the ford. There were
but fifty left at the bridge, and the barriers were
forced without resistance. So it was in this northern
section of the contest that the second actual conflict
as well as the first was fought. The afi"air of the
Bridge of Dee made a nearer approach to the dignity
of a battle than the Trot of Turrifi"; and its results
were far more eminent, since they decided the fate
not of a mere village, but of an important town, the
capital of a district. Again the Covenanters were
supreme in Aberdeen. Some conspicuous Malignants
were imprisoned, others dispersed or hid themselves.
There was momentous consultation about the fate of
the city — whether it should be rased to the ground,
and if not, what penalty should be exacted from it.
But an event intercepted the decision of these mo-
mentous questions. It was on the 19th of June 1639
that the bridge was carried. On the 20th, "whilst
the poor city was fearing the worst, that very night
came there a pinnace from Berwick, with letters both
from the king and chief of the Covenanters, ordering
all acts of hostility to cease upon both sides, and
intimating that the treaty was closed ; so that to-
morrow all the prisoners were released, the peace
proclaimed, and every man began to come back to
Aberdeen to their houses. Yet could not Montrose's
soldiers be gotten away out of the town of Aberdeen
till the town paid five thousand merks Scots for a
taxation to them, so ill were they satisfied both with
the want of the plunder of Aberdeen and the hasty
48 CHARLES I.
news of tbe peace, which Montrose suspected would
come before he entered the town." ^
It has been thought best to trace up to a temporary
conclusion this episode in the great contest, to prevent
confusion and clear all out of the way of the account
of the far more momentous, though less picturesque
and animated, succession of events through which the
main quarrel took its course.
1 Gordon's Scots Affairs, ii. 281, 282.
CHAPTER LXXII.
HAMILTON AND LAUD THE KING'S PREPARATIONS — MOVEMENTS
IN SCOTLAND THE SEIZURE OF EDINBURGH CASTLE AND
OTHER FORTRESSES ROYALIST FLEET IN THE FORTH ALEX-
ANDER LESLIE GATHERS A COVENANTING ARMY COMPOSI-
TION OF THE ARMY THE LOWLAND AGRICULTURISTS
ARGYLE'S HIGHLANDERS THE CAMP ON DUNSE LAW THE
king's army ON THE OTHER SIDE HINTS FOR A SUPPLICA-
TION THE PLAN TRIED THE KING's RECEPTION OF IT
PACIFICATION OF BERWICK SUSPICIONS A SUPPLEMENTAL
GENERAL ASSEMBLY DEMOLITION OF EPISCOPACY REPEATED
—THE king's LARGE DECLARATION A PARLIAMENT THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE ESTATES DEALINGS WITH THE
FRENCH COURT — THE QUARREL RENEWING — STATE OF FEEL-
ING IN ENGLAND AN ENGLISH ARMY MARCHING TO THE
NORTH — Leslie's army reconstructed — montrose and
THE passage of THE TWEED • CROSSING THE TYNE AT
NEWBURN, AND DEFEAT OF THE KING'S ARMY OCCUPATION
OF NEWCASTLE TREATY OF RIPON.
Hamilton's conduct received the approval of Laud,
and therefore of the king ; and he went to Court to
hold consultations, having first duly consulted Laud
on the propriety of such a step. So far as the voices
of that age come down to the present, the loudest in
denunciation and the firmest in the demand of strong
measures is still the voice of Laud. He chafed with
VOL. vn. D
50 CHARLES 1.
fierce impatience at the slowness and insufiicieney of
the preparations for punishment. " I am as sorry,"
he says, " as your grace can be, that the king's pre-
parations can make no more haste. I hope you think
— for truth it is — I have called upon his majesty, and
by his command upon some others, to hasten all that
may be, and more than this I cannot do." And a few
days later — on the 7th of December : " In tender care
of his majesty's both safety and honour, I have done,
and do daily call upon him for his preparations. He
protests he makes all the haste he can, and I believe
him ; but the jealousies of giving the Covenanters
umbrage too soon have made the preparations here so
late. I do all I can here with trouble and sorrow
enough." ^
The preparations were very formidable in design :
" His majesty was to raise an army of thirty thousand
horse and foot, and to lead them in person towards
Scotland : he was to ^w^rite to all the nobility of Eng-
land to wait upon him to the campaign with their at-
tendants, who should be maintained by his majesty's
pay : he was to put good garrisons in Berwick and
Carlisle — two thousand in the former and five hun-
dred in the latter : he was at the same time to send
a fleet to ply from the Firth northward for stopping
of trade, and making a great diversion for guarding
the coast : he was also to send an army of five thou-
sand men under the marquis his command to land in
the north and join with Huntly's forces — all which
should be under his command, he retaining still the
character of commissioner, with the addition of gen-
eral of the forces in Scotland ; and with these he was
' Burnet's Memoirs of Haiiiiltnii 111.
THE king's preparations, 1639. 51
first to make the uorth sure, and then to move south-
ward, which might both make another great diversion,
and encourage such as wished well to his majesty's
service, who were the greater number in those parts.
Next, the Earl of Antrim was to land in Argyleshire,
upon his pretensions to Kintyre and the old feuds
betwixt the Macdonalds and Campbells ; and he pro-
mised to bring with him ten or twelve thousand men.
And last of all, the Earl of Strafford was to draw to-
gether such forces as could be levied and spared out
of Ireland, and come with another fleet into Dum-
briton Firth ; and for his encouragement the marquis
desired him to touch at Arran (that being the only
place of his interest which he could offer unto his
majesty), and he would be sure of all his men there
(such naked rogues as they were is his own phrase) ;
besides, there were store of cows in that island for the
provision of the fleet, which he appointed should not
be spared."^
But poverty stood in the way of this, as of many
another brilliant project. Though the revenvie from
ship-money supported the Court in time of tranquillity,
there was so little for any exigency that the expense of
entertaining the queen's mother becomingly crippled
the treasury. As a type of the condition of the de-
partments connected with war and the national de-
fence, we may take the facts which Sir John Heydon,
Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, gave as his ex-
cuse for not rendering certain returns required by the
master-general : " The surveyor is sick ; the clerk of
the ordnance restrained of his liberty, and one of his
clerks absent ; the clerk of the deliveries is out of
1 Burnet's Memoirs, 113.
52 CHARLES I.
town, and his clerk absent ; the master-gunner dead,
the yeomen of the ordnance never present, nor any of
the gunner attendants." ^
So wretchedly were the royal fortresses in Scotland
apparelled and manned, that the Tables resolved to
take them at one sweep out of the hands of the Gov-
ernment. The project was discussed as a matter of
policy rather than ability, the question being, whether
it was just and prudent to take the king's strong
places out of the hands of his appointed servants, and
themselves hold them in his name. On the 23d of
March, Leslie, at the head of a strong party, demanded
possession of Edinburgh Castle. It was refused. Con-
trary to all proper precaution, he was allowed to put
his demand at the outer gate ; and when this was
closed on him, like a house - door on an unwelcome
visitor, he took the opportunity to screw a petard on
it. This explosive engine had, of course, been pre-
pared with the latest improvements known in the
great war ; and the effects of its explosion were so
astounding that the garrison tacitly j^ermitted the
assailants to take possession of the fortress. " Dum-
barton," says Baillie, " was a strength that no force
ever had won, and what stratagem to use we knew
not, the captain being so vigilant a gentleman, and
having provided it so well with men, munition, and
victuals ; yet God put it in our hands most easily." ^
It happened that this " vigilant gentleman " attended
church on Sunday with so many of the garrison that
when they were seized on their way back the place
was defenceless. Dalkeith was easily taken by as-
' Calendar of State Papca-s (Domestic), 1637-.38, preface, xiii.
- Letters, i. 193.
THE king's preparations, 1639. 53
sault. AVitliin it were found the warlike stores about
which there had been so much discussion. Something-
still more interesting was found there, — the Honours
of the realm — the crown, sceptre, and sword. These
were conveyed with reverential pomp to Edinburgh
Castle. Stirling Castle did not require to be assailed
— it was in the hands of a sure friend, the Earl of
Mar. All this was accomplished without the shedding
of a drop of blood, and was treated as a mere change
of officers — an administrative reform. Some strong-
places, in the hands of powerful subjects, such as
Hamilton Palace and Douglas Castle, were in the
same manner put into safe keeping. The Tables cast
longing eyes on the fortress of Caerlaverock, already
twice memorable in our History. They let it alone, for
a reason which shows how much prudence was allied
to their strength. As a Border fortress its posses-
sion was of moment. But it might have been assisted
from the garrison of Carlisle, and it was infinitely
desirable to avoid any conflict with English troops.
On the king's side the Commission of Array was
issued requiring the feudal force of England to assem-
ble at York. Hamilton was to take a fleet transport-
ins; land-forces into the Firth of Forth. " He desired
the king might choose a fitter person for the naval
forces, since he was altogether unacquainted with sea
affairs, and not fit for such an important service. But
his majesty, looking upon this as an effect of his
modesty, gave no hearing to it, telling him that as for
affairs purely naval, Sir John Pennington, the vice-
admiral, should go with him, and would abundantly
supply his defects in that." ^
1 Burnet's Memoirs, 114.
54 CHARLES I.
Such was the practice of the day. It took many
years' experience and many disasters to prove that
skill and science were necessary for sea commands,
and that birth and rank could not effect the handling
of vessels without these qualities.
On the 1st of May Hamilton and his fleet entered
the Firth of Forth. He had nineteen vessels, and the
rumour spread that he brought five thousand men in
them. We are told that these were in good condition,
" well clothed and well armed, but so little exercised
that of the five thousand there were not two hundred
who could fire a musket." ^ This was, it appears,
because the trained men were kept at home for the
defence of their own counties in case of need. Whether
there actually were five thousand men in the fleet may
be doubted. Though there were five regiments, we
have seen already how, when two thousand men were
ordered from them for service, they were not to be
found. Two of these regiments were, as we have
seen, sent to join the king's army in the north of Eng-
land. The whole affair partook of a pretence organised,
after the fashion of Chinese warfare, to frighten the
country. But the alarm inspired by it took the wrong
direction. It communicated to the preparations of the
Tables an impulsive rapidity. They were soon in pos-
session of thirty thousand stand of arms. They had
twenty thousand men embodied, and in the hands of an
organisation for diligently drilling and training them.
Prompt measures were taken for the defence of the coast.
Leith was strongly fortified. Round the coast of Fife
there was at that time a string of seaport towns which
conducted a lucrative commerce. They had an abun-
' Bmnet's Memoirs, 120.
t>
THE SCOTS PREPARATION, 1639. 55
daut shipping, and, like all enterprisiDg maritime com-
munities of that age, transacted in the Spanish main
and other distant seas a kind of business that ac-
customed them to the use of arms. These towns
were so affluent that King James compared the bleak
county of Fife to a frieze cloak with a trimming of
gold-lace. All these towns fortified themselves, and
there was no spot where a party could be landed
from the fleet without a struggle.
The Tables had again been supplicating in the old
fashion, vindication of the past and determination to
go on for the future in the same course, being set forth
with all deep humility. The king answered them in
a denunciatory proclamation intrusted to Hamilton.
Times were changed, however, and it was no longer
that the king's lieutenant played a game at hide-and-
seek with those who were to neutralise his Proclama-
tion by a Protestation. The authorities in Edinburgh
would neither announce the proclamation nor permit
it to be announced. They sent a remonstrance to
Hamilton, with the old professions of loyalty and
humility, but pointing out to him that this document
which comes from abroad, and has no sanction from
the local government of Scotland, " carries a denunci-
ation of the high crime of treason against all such as
do not accept the offer therein contained." "Where-
as your grace knows well that l)y the laws of this
kingdom, treason and tlie forfeiture of the lands, life,
and estate of the meanest subject within the same
cannot be declared but either in Parliament or in
a supreme justice court, after citation and lawful
probation ; how much less of the whole j^eers and
body of the kingdom, without either court, proof, <jr
S6 CHARLES I.
trial." They are convinced tliat it is not the doing of
their gracious king, but "a deep plot contrived by
the policy of the devilish malice of the known and
cursed enemies of this Kirk and State." ^
On the 20tli of May the Scots army was paraded
on the links of Leitli by their commander-in-chief,
Leslie. The articles of war under which they took
themselves bound to serve were read to them. Next
day the march towards the English border began.
They were accompanied by several clergymen, who
filled the regimental chaplain department to super-
fluity. Fortunately for the entertainment and in-
struction of later times, Baillie was among them, and
left some picturesque notices of his experience. He
was chaplain to the contingent from Ayrshire, where
he ministered, and he says : " I furnished to half-a-
dozen of good fellows muskets and pikes, and to my
boy a broadsword. I carried myself, as the fashion
was, a sword and a couple of Dutch pistols at my
saddle ; but I promise for the offence of no man
except a robber on the way, for it was our part alone
to pray and preach for the encouragement of our
countrymen."^ It may be questioned if any army
since the time of chivalry had in it so much of the
aristocratic element as this which went to make war
upon the sovereign. Baillie says: " Our crouners [that
is, colonels], for the most part, were noblemen. Rothes,
Lindsay, Sinclair, had among them two fall regiments,
at least, from Fife. Balcarras, a horse troop ; Loudon,
]\Iontgomcry, Erskine, Boyd, Fleming, Kirkcudbright,
Tester, Dalhousie, Eglinton, and others, either with
whole or half regiments. JMontrose's regiment was
^ Burnet's Memoirs. " Letters, &c., i. 211.
THE MARCH TO THE BORDER, 1639. 57
above fifteen himdi-ed men."^ His clerical mind
was surprised that so large a representative force of
the territorial aristocracy of Scotland should defer to
the soldier of fortune who commanded in chief : " We
were feared that emulation among our nobles might
have done harm Avhen they should be met in the
fields ; but such was the wisdom and authority of that
old, little, crooked soldier, that all with ane incredible
submission from the beginning to the end gave over
themselves to be guided by him, as if he had been
great Solomon." '^
There was a strouo- element of religious enthusiasm
CD O
in that host, yet perhaps it was not quite so strong as
some have believed it was. Through the wliole strug-
gle the working of the religious element was in the
hands of the loudest speakers, while those whose im-
pulses were of a secular character were more reserved
in their communications. What Baillie says of his
own entranced inner feelings may have applied to his
1 Lettere, &c., i. 211.
- Ibid., 213, 214. OLl Leslie was popular in England. The author
possesses a slim quarto pamphlet with the title, " General Lesley's
Speech in the Parliament of Scotland, the 25th of October 1641, in
Defence of himself upon certain Slanders which are reported of liim —
wherein he expresseth his Affection to the King and Kingdom of Eng-
land. Also concerning the Traytors of Scotland which did lay a Plot to
take away his Life. Printed at London for T. B., 1641." There is a wood-
cut on the title-page representing the general, in much more than com-
plete armour, careering away on a thundering war-steed. The speech
is in keeping with this — a rodomontade of turgid English sprinkled
with Latin. It must have taken skill to make anything so absolutely
at odds with the tough old practical Scots soldier, who had spent his
life abroad, and had a dubious reputation as to reading and writing. The
interest in the existence of such a document is in the fact that it should
have been fabricated for the English. On turning to the Lord Lyon's
diary of the session of 1641, to find whether Leslie did address the
House on the 2.5th of October 1641, the response is : "25th October —
Mondav: no meeting of Parliament."— Balfour, iii. 119.
58 CHARLES I.
brother clergy and a few others. The soldiers from
the Swedish camp had been taught to submit to reli-
gious ordinances as part of the soldier's discipline.
The same practice will in some measure account for the
sound of psalm-singing and praise which fed the ears of
Baillie with spiritual luxuries. That there was some-
what of swearing and brawling, and the other rough
usages of the camp, was also an element which he
was too honest to conceal.^ Argyle was there with
a few of his Highlanders. The others did not relish
their fellowship, and it was prudently settled that the
main body should remain in Scotland in the rear of
the march, "to be a terror to our neutralists or masked
friends, to make all without din march forward, lest
his uncanny trewsmen should light on to call him up
in their rear." Argyle's little group fox'med an object
of wonder, like the French Mamelukes, or the other
strange allies that armies emj^loyed on distant Oriental
warfare bring home Avith them for ornament rather
than use. They came from districts as utterly un-
known in England as the interior of Africa, and their
1 The short passage on which tlie text is a commentary is singuLirly
interesting : " Ha<l ye lent your ear in the morning, or especially at
oven, and heard in the tents the sound of some singing pjsalms, some
praying, and some reading Scripture, ye would have been refreshed.
True, there was swearing and cursing and brawling in some quarters,
whereat we were grieved ; but we hoped, if our camp had been a little
settled, to have gotten some way for these luisorders ; for all of
any fashion did regret, and all did promise to contribute their best
endeavours for helping all abuses. For myself, I never found my
mind in better temper than it was all that time frae I came from home,
till my head was again homeward ; for I was as a man who had taken
my leave from the world, and was resolved to die in that service without
return. I found the favour of God shiidng upon me, and a sweet, meek,
hunilile, yet strong and vehement spirit leading me all along ; but I
was no sooner in my way westward, after the conclusion of peace, than
my old security returned." — Letters, &c., i. 214.
THE MARCH TO THE BORDER, 1639. 59
people had a terrible name for rapine and ferocity.
"It was tliouglit," says Baillie, "the country of Eng-
land was more afraid for the barbarity of his High-
landers than of any other terror. These of the English
that came to visit our camp did gaze much with
admiration on these supple fellows, with their plaids,
target, and dorlachs." Thus it was in the cause of
the Covenant that Highland troops first threatened
the English border.
The army had an excellent commissariat, in which
their own sagacious organisation was assisted by
fortunate contingencies. The account of the material
condition of the host would be spoilt if given in any
other than Baillie's own words : —
" None of our gentlemen was anything worse of
lying some weeks together in their cloak and boots
on the ground, or standing all night in arms in the
greatest storm. Whiles, through storm of weather
and neglect of the commissaries, our bread would be
too long in coming, which made some of the eastland
soldiers half mutiny ; but at once order being taken
for our victuals from Edinburgh, East Lothian, and
the country about us, we were answered better than
we could have been at home. Our meanest soldiers
was always served in wheat-bread, and a groat would
have gotten them a lamb-leg, which was a dainty
world to the most of them. There had been an extra-
ordinary crop in that country the former year, beside
abundance which still was stolen away to the English
camp for great prices ; we would have feared no iulake
for little money in some months to come. Marche and
Tevidaill are the best mixt and most plentiful shires
both for grass and corn, for fleshes and bread, in all
6o CHARLES I.
our land. AVe were mncli obliged to the town of
Edinburgh for moneys. Harie EoUock, by his ser-
mons, moved them to shake out their purses. The
garners of non-Covenanters, especially of James Max-
well and my Lord Wintoun, gave us plenty of wheat.
One of our ordinances was to seize on the rents of non-
Covenanters ; for we thought it but reasonable, [since]
they sided with these who put our lives and our lands
for ever to seal, for the defence of our Church and
country, — to employ for that cause, wherein their in-
terest was as great as ours if they would be Scottish-
men, a part of their rent for a,ne year ; but for all
that, few of them did incur any loss by that our de-
cree, for the peace prevented the execution."^
The army, thus effectively equipped, contained
twenty-two thousand footmen and five hundred horse-
men. It will give some conception of the skill and
perseverance of those who sent it forth, to note that,
in mere jiroportion to the number of the inhabitants
of Scotland, it Avas such a feat as if a British war
minister of the present day could place an army of
some six hundred thousand efiective men on the
march.
When the army had reached Dungias, on the Ber-
wickshire coast, the Lord Holland handed to the gen-
eral a proclamation issued l)y the king at Newcastle
on the 14th of JMay. It stated that he found the Scots
nation were aj)prehensive that, contrary to his inten-
tions, he had come to invade them. He wishes to remove
this impression ; " if all civil and temporal obedience be
effectually and timely given and shown," there is to
be no invasion. The document is full of indistinct
' Letters, &c., i. 213.
CAMP ON DUNSE LAW, 1639. 61
matter of tliis kind ; but it contained one positive
declaration fit to be a ground of action, — if the Scots
came within ten miles of the Border, they were to be
treated as " rebels and invaders of this our kingdom
of England," and to be attacked by the English army.^
A council of war was held in the Scots camp, and it
was resolved in the mean time to obey the proclama-
tion, and to keep themselves ten miles distant from
the Border.^ An inexplicable incident connects itself
with this transaction. A large detachment of the
Scots — four or five thousand — were stationed at
Kelso. Whether or not they were at the time con-
scious of the proclamation, they were then within ten
miles of England. The Lord Holland came up with
a force of about equal strength and threatened a
charge, but finding that it would be steadily received,
wheeled his troop round and suddenly left the ground.
The Scots exulted over this as an inglorious and dis-
orderly retreat. It is likely that Holland supposed
the Scots party to be a small one which he could
easily drive back to the prescribed distance, and that
when he saw there would be tough resistance he feared
the responsibility of fighting the first battle.-"^
^ The proclamation is printed from a JMS., in Peterkin's Records, 220.
^ Gordon's Scots Ailaixs, iii. 5.
' Ibid., 7. Sir Harry Vane, in a letter to Hamilton, described the
affair thus : " My Lord Holland with one thousand horse and three
thousand foot marched towards Kelso, which when the rebels discovered
they instantly marched out with one hundred and fifty horse, and (as
my Lord Holland says) eight or ten thousand foot — five or six thousand
there might have been. He thereupon sent a trumpet comniaudin"
them to retreat, according to what they had promised by the proclama-
tion. They asked whose trumpeter he was; he said my Lord Holland's.
Their answer was, he had best to be gone ; and so my Lord Holland
made his retreat, and waited on his majesty this night to give him
this account." — Burnet's Memoirs, 139. Baillie's view was : " It is
62 CHARLES I.
The Scots commander called in all liis separate
detachments, so that his army might intrench itself in
a permanent camp at Dunse. This selection was not
in literal compliance with the proclamation to keep
ten miles from the Border, but virtually it showed
that he did not intend to cross the Border and attack
the king's army. The nature of the ground was
doubtless the reason of selection. The Law of Dunse
is a round trap hill entirely coated with thick turf,
not interrupted by breaks or rocks. It stands apart
by itself, and has a thorough command over the
country around, affording a view far into England.
Baillie's description of the encampment is brief but
sufficient : " Our hill was garnished on the top to-
wards the south and east with our mounted cannon,
well near to the number of forty, great and small.
Our regiments lay on the sides of the hill almost
round about. The place was not a mile in circle — a
pretty round rising in a declivity without steepness
to the height of a bowshot. On the top somewhat
plain about a quarter of a mile in length, and as
much in breadth, as I remember, capable of tents for
forty thousand men. The crouners lay in canvas lodg-
ings high and wide ; their captains about them in
lesser ones ; the soldiers about all in huts of timber
covered with divot or straw. "^
The king's army was on the other side of the
Tweed. To honour the presence of royalty it was
thought Holland's commission was to cut off all he met in opposition
to him ; but his soldiers that day was a great deal more nimhle in
their legs nor arms, excejjt their Cavaliers, whose right arms was not
less weary in whipping than their heels in jading their horses." —
Letters, i. 210.
1 Letters, i. 211.
CAMP ON DUNSE LAW, 1639. 63
decorated with much splendour ; but its materials were
of the same worthless kind as the levies sent to
Hamilton's fleet. The two hosts looked at each other,
and to the English it was plain that the post taken
by the Scots covered any road they might take
northwards.
Thus, while still maintaining his divine right and
the duty of implicit obedience, the king had come
face to face with absolute defeat at the hands of his
subjects. The question Avas, whether he should fight
and be beaten, or treat. His advisers could not well
hesitate which to choose ; but the problem was how to
treat, and yet to save the royal dignity. The other
side were ready to help to this solution, provided they
had practically their own way in all things. A Scots-
man, Eobert Leslie, one of the royal pages, stepped
over to the Scots camp to see and converse with old
friends. He touched on various topics, and at last, as
if it were a spontaneous thought which he could not
help uttering — might it not be prudent at this, the
last moment, to present a humble supplication to his
majesty ? The hint was taken. The " humble sup-
plication," partaking of the brevity of the camp, and
strongly in contrast with previous documents of the
same name, desired that his majesty would appoint
some persons well affected to true religion and the
common peace, to hear their humble desires and make
known to them his majesty's gracious pleasure.^ The
king referred to his " gracious proclamation" to his
subjects in Scotland, which had " been hitherto hin-
dered to be published,"— when it was " publicly read"
he would hear their supplications at length. Sir
1 Rushworth, iii. 9.38.
c
64 CHARLES I.
Edward ^^-'^nay, a man who saw all tlie danger and
eagerly desired to obviate it, was sent to tlie Scots
camp witli this proposal. He was told distinctly that
the proclamation could not be acknowledged or pub-
lished. The reasons for this were given at length
and offered to him in writing ; they were in sub-
stance the same as those tendered to Hamilton.^ But
Vcrnay was eager for some compromise. In the
ouncil of officers round the general's table the pro-
clamation was produced and examined, as people met
on business examine the documents connected with
it. Some one suggested the reading it over, and it
was read accordingly " with much reverence." This
Vernay reported as "a satisfaction " of the king's
demand. The satisfaction was accepted, and an inti-
mation was sent to the Scots camp, that "his majesty,
having understood of the obedience of the petitioners
in reading his proclamation as was commanded
them, is graciously pleased so far to condescend unto
their petition, as to admit some of them to repair to
his majesty's camp upon Monday next at eight o'clock
in the morning at the lord general's tent, where they
shall find six persons of honour and trust appointed by
his majesty to hear their humble desires." Thus was
the great crisis postponed and an opportunity opened
for negotiation. Yet even at this point the Scots ex-
emplified that spirit of suspicion that, whether Avell or
ill founded, had taken possession of them, and a de-
termination to rely on nothing but their own strength.
This invitation, signed by Sir Edward Coke, the
Secretary of State, was tendered to them as a safe-
^ See above, p. 55. Tliey will be found, as stated in the camp of
date 18th .June 16.39, in Peterkin's Records, p. 226.
PACIFICATION OF BERWICK, 1639. 6$
conduct, but was not accepted to that effect : " Although
themselves did not mistrust his majesty's word signi-
fied by the secretary, yet the people and army would
not permit their deputies to come without his majesty's
own hand and warrant." The stinp- in such an inti-
O
mation could not be the less sharp that it was made
in honest caution and not in bravado ; but the offence
tendered in it could not be taken in such an emer-
gency. With the necessary changes, " the self-same
form which had been signed by Mr Secretary Coke
was again returned them upon Sunday night, June
the 9th, signed by his majesty." ^
The commissioners sent from the Scots camp were
Eothes, Loudon, Douglas, the Sheriff of Teviotdale,
Warriston, and Henderson. The place of meeting-
was the tent occupied by the English commander, the
Earl of Arundel. There was something faintly dis-
pleasing in this arrangement, since he was suspected
of Popish leanings ; but the heterodoxy of the owner
of the canvas stretched over them was a trifle, and
they satisfied their consciences by addressing them-
selves not to him but to the Lord Holland. It was
admitted, too, that Arundel's hospitality, also un-
affected by his opinions, was munificent.
They had but begun business when a strange inci-
dent occurred. The king stepped into the tent unan-
nounced, and so noiselessly that the Scots commission-
ers, who had their backs to the entrance, were for some
little time unaware of his presence. Such a disturbing
influence in deliberative assemblies, especially of small
numbers, was inimical to British constitutional pre-
cedent both in England and Scotland. Whether or
1 Rushwortli, iii. 939; Hardwioke's State Papers, ii. 130.
VOL. VII. E
66 CHARLES I.
not it was from a reliance on the overawing influence
of the sacred presence, King Charles showed great
hankering for such surprises — witness his undesired
presence and interference in the meeting of the Estates
in 1633, and afterwards his appearance in the House
of Commons to claim the five members. He attended
the conference pretty regularly, and bore with patience
and complacency speeches that can have been neither
enlivening nor congenial. " The king," says Baillie,
" was very sober, meek, and patient to hear all ; our
spokesmen were very earnest to speak much, to make
large and plausible narrations, as well they could,
of all our proceedings from the beginning." "Much
and most free communina; there was of the highest
matters of State. It is likely his majesty's ears had
never been tickled with such discourses ; yet he was
most patient of all, and loving of clear reason." "His
majesty was ever the longer the better loved of all
that heard him, as one of the most just, reasonable,
sweet persons they ever had seen; and he also was the
more enamoured with us, especially with Henderson
and Loudon. These conferences purchased to us a
great deal of reputation for wisdom, eloquence, gravity,
loyalty, and all other good parts with tlie English
counsellors, who all the time did speak little, but
suffered the speech to pass betwixt us and the king."^
Thus the king's presence and demeanour infused
through those stubborn men a soothing influence,
prompting them to reliance. This feeling, however,
did not take the direction that he who created it might
have desired. It was not a reliance on the soundness
of any step which the king might take, but a reliance
' Baillie's Letters, i. 217.
PACIFICATION OF BERWICK, 1639. &"]
that they had talked him over to their own side. They
startled him somewhat by a request made with due
formal reverence, that he would set his own hand as
they had set theirs to the abolition of Episcopacy.
But even to this he avoided an irritating answer — it
was a weighty matter which he must take time to
think of.
It would be easy to fill up a narrative of contradic-
tion and debate from the writings connected with this
conference. Papers were exchanged, as of old, with
supplications and evasions or refusals. The way in
which one side set forth in writing the verbal discus-
sions or conclusions was contradicted by the other.
When the king proclaimed his view of the future
sanctioned by the conference, there was the inevitable
" protestation" contradicting him. But these wrang-
lings had none of the importance of those which pre-
ceded the Covenant and the General Assembly. Then
they represented an actual contest, attended by uncer-
tainties and mutations. Now it might be said that the
Covenanters were in possession, the c[uestion remain-
ing was, whether they were to hold that possession by
the sword, or to keep it in peace, avoiding the scandal
and the other evils of a civil war.
There were thus some points that might be called
open questions, which the stronger party could close
at their will. The king would not acknowledge that
General Assembly which had been held against his com-
mand, and the other party would not disavow it. The
whole question was left to a free Assembly and a free
meeting of the Estates. The prevailing party could
not object to these exercising their full power of re-
visal. They knew well what the result would be; and
68 CHARLES I.
if the king's dignity was saved by its resolving itself
into that shape, it was well. So with the Bishops. The
king would not absolutely accept their destruction, nor
would the other party disavow the act — this, too, would
be in the hands of the Parliament and Assembly.
For other and immediate matters it was agreed that
both armies should be disbanded, and that the Scottish
fortresses should be restored to the king. There were
other items of a secondary kind ; but they are of little
moment, since each party charged the other as unfaith-
ful to the treaty, and it affected no more than a post-
ponement of the c[uarrel. Other incidents were pro-
motive of jealousy and irritation. While the king was
yet on the Border he sent messages to fourteen of those
who had chief influence in the management of Scots
affairs, desiring them to come to him that he mio-ht
consult with them on high and important matters of
policy. There was something imusual, to the verge of
eccentricity, in such a proposal, especially when a con-
ference in which they were on one side and he on the
other had been brought to a practical conclusion.
There were two suspicious questions raised about the
affair. Did he desire to have these men as his guests
and companions, that he might try the influence of his
royal blandishments on them 1 This was the lighter sus-
picion of the two. The other laid bluntly to his charge
a design to kidnap the leaders of the Covenant party.
Those so invited all declined to attend. Whatever was
meant by the invitation, its rejection was naturally
counted as an offence by subjects to their sovereign.^
^ The king, when he explained his ahsence from the Assemhly which
he had intended to grace, said : " But one of the greatest discourage-
ments we had from going tliitlier was the refusing of such lords and
PACIFICATION OF BERWICK, 1639. 69
On the other hand, the king cast a bitter reproacli
on those with Avhom he had been so gracious and genial
in Arundel's tent. At a meeting of the English Privy
Council he altered and denounced the account of the
treaty as the Scots commissioners told it, as being
" in most parts full of falsehood, dishonour, and scandal
to his majesty's proceedings in the late pacification
given of his majesty's princely grace and goodness to
his subjects in Scotland." He called on the English
commissioners who had been present to attest the
falsehood of the account, and the minute of the meet-
ing of Council records their testimony against its ac-
curacy. In the end, " the whole board unanimously
became humble petitioners to his majesty, that this
false and scandalous paper might be publicly burnt by
the hangman." ^ This was awkward treatment by the
Government of England of what was virtually a State
paper issued by the existing Government of Scotland.
Then we are told that " the pulpits spoke it out very
loudly, that the king had caused burn all the articles
of the pacification at Berwick by the hand of the
hangman after his return to London, which was be-
lieved by very many, who upon that account looked
upon the king as a truce-breaker, and from that time
forwards contracted so great animosity against him
that they thought him not to be trusted." ^
others of that nation whom we sent for to come to us to Berwick ; by
which disobedience they manifestly discovered their distrust of us, and
it cannot be thought reasonable that we should trust our person with
those that distrusted us, after so many arguments and assurances of
our goodness towards them." — His Majesty's Declaration concerning
his Proceedings with his Subjects of Scotland since his Pacification
in the Camp near Berwick; Eushworth, 1018.
' Eushworth, iii. 965, 966.
2 Gordon's Scots Affairs, iii. 31.
70 CHARLES I.
The next stage in the progress of events is the hold-
ing first of a General As.scmbly, and next of a meeting
of the Estates. The king had announced that he was
to be present at both, but he changed his intention.
Hamilton was again desired to act as Commis-
sioner, but he declined the trust. It was natural, and
perhaps becoming, that neither the king nor his com-
missioner who had professed to close the previous
Assembly should preside, since the business to be
transacted was a formal surrender of all that tlie
royal prerogative had asserted for upwards of thirty
years in the ecclesiastical organisation of Scotland.
The Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 12th of
August, with the Earl of Traquair as commissioner.
As in the Assembly of 1638, care was taken to exclude
the uncovenanted, and the process had become far less
troublesome since the spirit of opposition was dead.
Comj)ared, indeed, with the other, this Assembly
resembled a conclave of official persons who have to
record and put in order the resolutions over which a
great battle has been fought, with debates, musters of
attendance, and anxious voting. The commissioner
recommended brevity and expedition in the work to
be accomplished. In the spirit of getting quickly over
a disagreeable but necessary business, he suggested
" that all these evils which were the grievances might
be viewed together and included under one Act." It
was conceded to the king, that although they were
virtually met to confirm the Acts of the Assembly
of 1638, it should not be referred to in the Acts
of the new Assembly, however it might be mentioned
in debate. Also, that in confirming the abolition of
Episcopacy, nothing should be said abusive of that
GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1639. 71
form of Churcli government as Popish or otherwise,
but that it should be simply condemned as " contrary
to the constitution of the Church of Scotland." The
same negative courtesy was to be rendered to the
Court of High Commission and to the abolished
ceremonies.
In this spirit an Act was passed " containing the
causes and remedies of the bygone evils of this Kirk."
It enumerated the Articles of Perth, the establishment
of Bishops, the Service-book, Book of Canons, and the
other grievances of which we have seen so much
already, and declared them to be " still" abjured and
unlawful. A little dramatic scene was prepared for
the inauguration of this completion of the revolution.
After " Mr Andrew Cant, having a strong voice," had
read the Act, some of the clergy present, including
certain venerable ministers who had witnessed the per-
fection of the Presbyterian polity in the days of the
Melvilles, were desired to " speak their judgment" on
what had been accomplished. The voices of some of
these men had been known of old, but in later times
had been lost in the storm that had overtaken their
favourite polity. Among these were Alexander Som-
erville, Harry RoUock, John Row, John Bell, William
Livingston, and John Ker. As a fair specimen of these
grave rejoicings, we may take the contribution made to
them by John Weems, a man unknown in debate or
polemics, but a scholar and a patient worker in Biblical
criticism : " Mr John Weems called on, could scarce
get a word spoken for tears trickling down along his
grey hairs like drops of rain or dew upon the top of
the tender grass, and yet withal smiling for joy,
said : ' I do remember when the Kirk of Scotland
72 CHARLES I.
had a beautiful face. I remember since there was
a great power and life accompanying the ordinances
of God, and a wonderful work of operation upon the
hearts of people. These, my eyes, did see a fearful de-
fection after, procured by our sins, and no more did I
wish before my eyes were closed but to have seen such
a beautiful day. Blessed for evermore be our Lord
and King, Jesus ; and the blessing of God be upon his
majesty, and the Lord make us thankful.'" On this
the moderator, ]\Ir David Dickson, said : " I believe
the king's majesty made never the heart of any man
so blyth in giving them a bishopric as he has made
the heart of that reverend man joyful in putting them
away; and I am persuaded, if his majesty saw you
shedding tears for blythness, he should have more
pleasure in you nor in some of those that he has given
great things unto." Thereupon "old Mr John Bell,
in Glasgow, said : ' My voice nor my tongue cannot
express the joy of my heart to see this torn-down Kirk
restored to her beauty. The Lord make us thankful.
Lord bless his majesty and commissioner.' " " Old Mr
Livingston," also, had seen the ancient glory, and
mourned under the eclipse, and now he had lived to
see the brightness, ending : " And now I have seen it,
and bless the Lord for it, and begs the blessing from
heaven upon our gracious sovereign." ^
Such was the extinction of Episcopacy as enacted
before the world. But before we understand the full
policy of the surrender, we must seek help from some
documents which did not so frankly court the light —
<locuments that, had they been known in that Assem-
bly, would have been apt to extijiguisli the ardour of
' Peterkin's Eecords, 250-52.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1639. ^l
the thanks and blessings bestowed on the king. Of
date the 6th of August — six days before the opening of
the Assembly — there existed a letter by the king to
Spottiswood, who had been Archbishop of St Andrews,
and still was addressed as " right trusty and well-
beloved councillor and reverend father in God." It
was an answer to an address sent by the Scottish
bishops through Laud as their mediator; and the
scroll of the letter was to be seen in Burnet's day, in
the handwriting of Hamilton, " interlined in some
places by my Lord of Canterbury." The king begins
by telling them that he cannot comply with their
proposal to prorogate the Assembly — the political
conditions render that impossible. At the same time
he does not see the use of their attempting to hold a
meeting — in Scotland it would be dangerous, in Eng-
land unproductive. Nor would he liave them venture
into the Assembly. With all this discouragement, he
says : " We do hereby assure you that it shall be still
one of our chiefest studies how to rectify and establish
the government of that Church aright, and to repair
your losses, which we desire you to be most confident
of." Then, to show that these are not mere vague ex-
pressions of goodwill, he instructs them how to begin
in secret to aid him in the work of restoration, thus :
" We conceive that the best way will be for your lord-
ships to give in by way of protestation and remonstrance
your exceptions against this Assembly and Parliament
to our commissioner, which may be sent by any mean
man, so he be trusty and deliver it at his entering
into the church ; but we would not have it be read
or argued in this meeting, where nothing but partial-
ity is to be expected, but to be represented to us by
74 CHARLES I.
him, wliicli we promise to take so in consideration as
becometh a prince sensible of bis own interest and
honour, joined with tlie equity of your desires. And
you may rest secure, that though we may perhaps give
way for the present to that which will be prejudicial
both to the Church and our own Government, yet wc
shall not leave thinking in time how to remedy both." ^
The task assigned to Traquair was delicate, and,
looking to the temper of those who had undisputed
command in Scotland, also perhaps dangerous. He
would naturally desire directions in writing on the
point, in addition to whatever he might derive from
verbal conference. But such directions would require
to be cautiously expressed ; for any document from the
king regulating the conduct and procedure of his
representative in Scotland would not so easily be kept
private as the hint given to the poor bishops. Hence
this enigmatical instruction : " In giving way to the
abolishing of Episcopacy, be careful that it be done
Avithout the appearing of any warrant from the bishops;
and if any offer to appear for them, you are to inquire
into their warrant, and carry the dispute so as the
conclusion seem not to be made in prejudice of Epis-
copacy as unlawful, but only in satisfaction to the
people for settling the present disorders and such
other reasons of State ; but herein you must l3e careful
that our intentions appear not to any." ^
After they had concluded the great work, the As-
sembly had yet something of moment to do ere they
separated. The king had come before the world in a
new shape — as a controversial pamphleteer. Things
had come forth from him, or at least in his name,
^ Burnet's Memoirs, 154. - Iljid., 150.
THE king's large DECLARATION, 1639. 75
against whicli it behoved them to lift their testimony.
As the king marched northward, a " Declaration" had
been circulated in England vindicating his resort to
arms. Whether wisely or not, it appealed to the spirit
of High Church and divine right as political influences
still powerful in England, and treated the Covenanters
somewhat bitterly, saying of their fundamental charter :
'"' AVhich Covenant of theirs they have treacherously
induced many of our people to swear to a band against
us ; which band and Covenant, or rather conspiracy
of theirs, could not be with God, being against us, the
Lord's anointed over them. But it was and is a band
and Covenant pretended to be with God, that they may
with the better countenance do the work of the devil,
such as all treasons and rebellions are." There were
appeals to other and more material English doctrines
or prejudices. He pointed lastly to " their most hostile
preparations of all kinds, as if we were not their king-
but their sworn enemy; for what can their intentions
be, being thus prepared, but to invade this kingdom,
should they not find us ready both to resist their force
and to curb their insolences 1 For many, and some
of the ehiefest among them, are men not only of un-
quiet spirits, but of broken fortunes, and would be
very glad of any occasion — especially under the colour
of religion — to make them whole upon the lands and
goods of our subjects in England, who, we presume,
besides their allegiance to us, will look better to them-
selves and their estates than to share them with such
desperate hypocrites, who seek to be better, and cannot
well be worse." This document, called "The Short
Declaration," announced that " there is a large Declara-
tion coming forth, containing all the particular passages
76 CHARLES I.
which have occurred in this business from the begin-
ning, attested with their own foul acts, to disannul
and shame their fair but false words." ^
The " Large Declaration" thus announced, though it
professed to expound from the same text, is a document
of a different kind. It is a folio volume containing
more than four hundred pages. Every student of the
history of the period knows it well, since it is not only
of interest and moment as a declaration of the royal
policy, but it contaiiis in a consecutive form the docu-
ments which lie scattered in several collections. The
Large Declaration is a patient and precise narrative —
tedious no doubt, but prepossessing in its tediousness,
as testifying to an honest desire to leave nothing un-
told or doubtful. The statements in it are suj)ported
throughout by abundant documents, the accurate ren-
dering of which has not been questioned. It is the
story of a magnanimous sovereign, the father of his
people, dealing with his erring subjects. Some are
selfish and aggrandising, others merely petulant and
factious. He has on his side all the maxims. Scrip-
tural and traditional, which require the people to obey
the powers that are ordained to rule over them. If it
be that he is changing some things either in Church or
State, it is to remedy confusions and irregularities, and
to restore sound order. But above all, he, the supreme
ruler, has been meek and forbearing, while those whose
duty it was to obey have been arrogant and dictato-
rial. If he has erred, it is in passive endurance rather
than in anger. Into this, his error, he has been led
by the Christian spirit of mercy and forgiveness. He
' Bibliotheca Regia, 173 et seq.
THE king's large DECLARATION, 1639. 'J'J
has been long-suffering, that he might spare the blood
of his rebellious subjects, and leave them an opportu-
nity for penitence and a return to duty.
The Large Declaration would, in fact, be a complete
vindication of the Government of Charles I. in his
dealing with Scotland, were its primary conditions
accepted. Grant that he had the right to do what he
was doing, it is shown that he did it in an amiable,
considerate, and generous spirit. Whoever admitted
that he was an absolute monarch, woi;ld readily ad-
mit, on the showing of the Large Declaration, that
he had borne his faculties meekly in the fulfilling of
his great office.
Had this book come from a triumphant cause, it
would have been a triumphant vindication. Such as
it is, it was well suited to establish the righteousness
of the king's position in the monarchical States of
Europe. In Spain and France, in the greater part of
Germany, and even in the Scandinavian kingdoms,
constitutional law and practice would not be under-
stood as legitimate barriers to a king's prerogative.
They would be seen only as old troublesome abuses,
such as it might be counted meritorious in a govern-
ment to sweep away. The Declaration was adorned
with some touches of sarcasm ; but in these, also, there
was taste and discretion, since they were directed not
against the graver objects and acts of the Covenanters,
but asainst the feminine riots, and some of the eccen-
tricities apt to break out among communities in a state
of excitement. Hence there are here preserved some
features of the times on which the historians of the
Covenant are not explicit — such as the performances
78 CHARLES I.
of a Mrs Margaret Nicholson, who was subject to fits
of raving which passed for prophetic trances.^
It was known that the Large Declaration was the
work of Walter Balcanquall, a Scotsman who was
rising step by step in the English hierarchy. He had
become Deau of Durham when the Declaration was
published. Thus the arrow was discharged by one
who seemed to have removed himself into a place of
safety from the coming vengeance ; but this did not
tend to appease the rage of the brethren. Their
method of giving it vent is perhaps the oddest of all
their disputative exhibitions, and is of a kind so far apart
from the usual tenor of political or theological contro-
versy, that had it come from persons less grave and
earnest, it might have been suspected of a latent spirit
of jocular sarcasm. They charged the Declaration as an
offence perpetrated against the king, whose name had
been foully used for the factious purposes of the au-
thor. On this view of the case they presented another
' " The multitude was made believe her words proceeded not from
herself but from God. Thence was that incredible concourse of all sorts of
people — noblemen, gentlemen, ministers, women of all ranks and quali-
ties— who watched or sta) ed by her day and night during the time of her
pretended fits, and did admire her raptures and inspirations as coming
from heaven. She spake but at certain times, and many times had inter-
missions of days and weeks, in all probability that she might have time to
receive instructions, and to digest them against the next time of exercis-
ing her gifts, as they call them, which, so soon as she was ready to begin,
the news of it was blown all the town over, and the house so thronged
that thousands at every time could find no access. The joy which her
auditors conceived for the comfort of such a messenger from heaven, and
such messages as she delivered from thence, was many times expressed
to them in tears, by none more than by Rolloc, her special favourite, who
being desired sometimes by the spectators to pray with her, and speak
to her, answered that he durst not do it, as being no good manners in
him to speak while his Master was sjieaking in her." — Large Declaration,
227.
THE king's large DECLARATION, 1639. 79
of their countless supplications to the throne. They
appealed to his majesty as " so much wronged by the
many foul and false relations suggested and persuaded
to him as truths, and by stealing the protection of his
royal name and authority to the doctrine of such a
book." On this ground they called upon him "to be
pleased first to call in the said book, and thereby to
show his dislike thereof ; next, to give commission
and warrant to all such parties as are either known
or suspect to had hand in it, and to appoint such as
his majesty knows to be either authors, informers,
or any ways accessary, being natives of this kingdom,
to be sent hither to abide their trial and censure be-
fore the judge ordinary — and in special Mr Walter
Balcanquall, now Dean of Durham, who is known
and hath professed to be the author, at least avower
and maintainer of a great part thereof — that by their
exemplar punishment others may be deterred from
such dangerous courses as in such a way to raise sedi-
tion betwixt the king and his subjects, God's honour
may be vindicate from such high contempt, his ma-
jesty's justice may appear not only in cutting away
such malefactors, but in discouraging all such rmder-
miners of his throne, his loyal and loving subjects
shall be infinitely contented to be cleared before the
world of so false and unjust imputations, and will live
hereafter in the greater security when so dangerous a
cause of sedition is prevented, and so will have the
greater and greater cause to pray for his majesty's
long and prosperous reign." ^
It would be interesting to know whether, on such
minds as that of Charles and Laud, a sense of the
1 Peterkin's Records, 206.
8o CHARLES r.
ludicrous might have lightened up the gloomy scene
on the reception of such a " supplication." We are
fortunate in possessing some morsels of the debate, if
so it can be called where all are of one mind, which
ended in this supplication : —
" Mr Andrew Cant said : ' It is so full of gross ab-
surdities that I think hanging of the author should
prevent all other censures.'
" The moderator answered : ' That punishment is
not in the hands of Kirkmen.'
" The Sheriff of Teviotdale being asked his judgment,
said: 'Ye were offended with a Churchman's hard
sentence already ; but truly I could execute that sen-
tence with all my heart, because it is more proper to
me, and I am better acquainted with hanging.'
" My Lord Kirkcudbright said : ' It is a great pity
that many honest men in Christendom for writing-
little books called pamphlets should want ears, and
false knaves for writing such volumes should brook
heads.' " This was a reference to the fate of Prynne,
Burton, and Bastwick. Hence " the Assembly, after
serious consideration of the great dishonour to God,
this Church, and kingdom, by the said book, did con-
descend upon a supplication." ^
One other item of business was transacted ere this
Assembly dispersed. They expressed their thanks for
the goodness of the Secret Council in resolving at
their request to enforce subscription to the Covenant
by penalties. They therefore, " considering the great
happiness which may How from a full and perfect union
of this Kirk and kingdom by joining of all in one and
the same Covenant with God, with the king's majesty,
' Peterkin's Records, 268.
PARLIAMENT, 1 639-40. 8 1
and among ourselves," ordain that " all the masters
of universities, colleges, and schools, all scholars at
the passing of their degrees, all persons suspect of
Papacy or any other error, and, finally, all the mem-
bers of this Kirk and kingdom, subscribe the same." ^
Nothinsf now remained to be done for the rebuild-
ing of the fallen Zion except the sanction of the
Estates. They had, according to an arrangement
with the Government, assembled on the 15th of May.
They had been twice adjourned by the Crown without
oifering resistance ; but now, on their reassembling at
the end of August, it was deemed prudent to let them
proceed to business. The riding of the Parliament,
and all the solemnities, especially those due to royalty,
were performed with exactness and more than custom-
ary splendour. A fact having no political origin of the
time gave a casual lustre to that Parliament. Hitherto
the Estates had met in the dingy recesses of the Tol-
booth. Now for the first time they occupied the great
hall, with its fine roof-work of oaken beams, which has
ever since been one of the glories of Edinburgh.^
1 Peterkin's Records, 208.
^ That versatile scholar and amusing author, James Howell, was pre-
sent on the occasion, and mentions it in his celebrated ' Familiar Let-
ters.' He talks of the "fair Parliament House built here lately," and
the general regret that its opening was not rendered auspicious by the
presence of the king. "This town of Edinburgh," he says, "is one of
the fairest streets that ever I saw, excepting that of Palermo, in Sicily.
It is about a mile long, coming sloping down from the castle to Holy-
rood House, now the royal palace ; and these two begin and terminate
the town. I am come hither on a very convenient time ; for here's a
national Assembly and a Parliament, my Lord Traquair being his ma-
jesty's commissioner. The bishops are all gone to rack, and they have
had but a sorry funeral. The very name is grown so contemptible that
a black dog, if he hath any white marks about him, is called Bishop.
Our Lord of Canterbury is grown here so odious that they call him com-
monly in the pulpit the piiest of Baal and the son of Belial." — P. 276.
VOL. VIl. F
82 CHARLES I.
This Parliament was short and disputatious. The
first contest was about the constitution of the com-
mittee called the Lords of the Articles. The com-
missioner called the Lords aside into a separate apart-
ment. The other Estates sent messengers to know the
reason of this act. They were answered, that the first
Estate, with the commissioner, were selecting the Lords
of the Articles who were to serve for the other two
Estates, according to usage. It was denied that this
was an old usage — it was an innovation of later times,
which Ijehoved to be abated, so that each Estate might
choose its own representatives in the Committee of
Articles. The members were, however, anxious to
enter on business ; and knowing that they could bring
their majority at any time to mould and control what-
ever might be done, they yielded the cjuestion of the
constitution of the committee for this one Parliament,
protesting against the arrangement as a precedent.
The next dispute was on an Act of indemnity. The
commissioner would have it take the form of a royal
pardon graciously extended by his majesty to his err-
ing subjects who had rebelled against him. Naturally
the triumphant party repudiated this view ; they held
that all their acts had been legal, and it was merely to
obviate any further cavilling on the point that they
desired to have them confirmed by Act of Parliament.
A crowd of other disputed projects followed. It had
been suspected that , the king intended to bring over
English favourites and supporters to deal with his
troublesome subjects in Scotland. It was proposed
to restrict tlie prerogative right of conferring honours
on strangers, and that the castles of Edinburgh,
►Stirling, and Duraljarton should be intrusted to no
PARLIAMENT, 1640. 83
governors but Scotsmen born, appointed by Act of
Parliament. It was proposed to settle in tlie negative
a disputed right claimed by the Crown to fix the
customs duties payable on foreign merchandise, and to
limit the power of pardoning criminals, and protect-
ing debtors from molestation by their creditors, also
claimed by the Crown.
The commissioner sent to Court for instructions.
The king said he perceived that the cause of their
own peculiar religion was no longer the influencing
motive of the party in power, and " that nothing
would give them content but the alteration of the
whole frame of government in that kingdom, and
withal the total overthrow of royal authority." ^ The
commissioner was therefore instructed to adjourn the
Parliament until the 2d of June 1640. The Estates
complied with the adjournment, protecting themselves
by the old safeguard of a protestation. In this docu-
ment, and the king's defence uttered in answer to it,
the characteristic most remarkable to one accustomed
to the documents of that period is the vague and
didactic character of the reasoning on both sides, and
the absence of the close argiiment from precedent that
is so satisfying a feature in the documents connected
with the English Long Parliament.
On the 2d of June 1640 the Estates reassembled
accordingly. The king sent from London instructions
to adjourn or prorogue the meeting. But the official
persons whose signatures and sealings authenticated
and recorded such writs either would not or dared not
act. The members of Parliament knew, as people
know the ucaa^s of the day, that the king had issued
1 Gordon's Scots Affairs, iii, 7J.
84 CHARLES I.
such an instruction ; but it was not formally and
oificially before them, and did not enter on their
records. The day fixed for reassembling was on
record, not the adjournment or the prohibition to
assemble. At almost every stejD of its proceedings
this Parliament takes the opportunity to state that
it is "indicted by his majesty," or " convened by his
majesty's special authority;" and the restoration of
this apologetic assertion gives a touch of the ludicrous
to its grave proceedings. There was no commissioner
to represent royalty at this assemblage. In the Scots
Parliament the commissioner's office was rather that
of the Lord Chancellor's in the House of Lords of
England, than the Speaker's in the House of Com-
mons. They elected Kobert, Lord Burleigh, "to be
president of this meeting of Estates in Parliament,"
and his position partook both of the Chancellor's and
the Speaker's in England.
Thus, in the king's name, and, technically speak-
ing, under his authority, the Estates began the Par-
liamentary war with him. Though small was the
respect held by the English Parliamentary formalists
for the Scots Estates and their slovenly practice, it
could not be but that the Long Parliament, when it
found itself in an almost parallel difficulty, should
look with interest to the course taken by the Scots.
And here, as in several other instances, Scotland kept
a step before England in the way towards the great
contest.
The king, in his Large Declaration, had announced
a practical difficulty that must beset a Parliament with-
out bishops. There were three Estates — the Prelates,
the Barons, and the Burgesses. The division into
PARLIAMENT, 1640. 85
three was essential to the method of transacting busi-
ness. It was maintained by some that nothing could
be carried in the Scots Parliament unless there were
in its favour a majority in each one of the three
Estates. It was not doubted that a majority in two
of the three was necessary. This made, in passing
from the votes of the individual members to the votes
of the Estates, a majority of two to one on any ques-
tion. If there were a majority for the measure among
the ecclesiastics and the barons, though the majority
Avere the other way among the burgesses, the collective
vote would stand two to one ; and so if the barons
and the burgesses, or the prelates and the burgesses,
had majorities in common. There was a practical
utility not to be lightly sacrificed in the three cham-
bers. It was the same utility that taught the Eomans
to hold that three make a corporation. Where there
are three there is a certainty that every vote will be
sanctioned by a majority of two to one. Accordingly
the Estates immediately rearranged themselves into
three chambers. The greater barons, holding seats
by tenure, were called the nobility ; those who, like
the knights of the shire in England, represented the
smaller freeholders, were called " the barons." The
burgesses were the third Estate. This reorganisa-
tion of the supreme Legislature was set forth in
terms evidently well weighed and adjusted. They
framed " an Act anent the constitution of this Parlia-
ment, and all subsequent Parliaments." The Act be-
gins with a characteristic preamble, how " the Estates
of Parliament presently convened by his majesty's
special authority, considering this present Parliament
was indicted by his majesty for ratifying of such Acts
86 CHARLES I.
as should be concluded in the late Assembly of the
Kirk, for determining all civil matters, and settling all
such things as may conduce to the public good and
peace of this Kirk and kingdom." The Acts of the
General Assembly, for the ratification of which the
king had cited this Parliament, had excluded the
l)ishops from the Kirk ; and, whether that exclusion
was lawful or not until the Estates confirmed it, in
point of fact the bishops were not present, and the
Estates must transact business without them. There-
fore they determine " this present Parliament, holden
by the nobility, barons, and l^urgesses, and their
commissioners — the true Estates of the kingdom — to
be a complete and perfect Parliament, and to have
the same power, authority, and jurisdiction as any
Parliament formally hath had within this kingdom in
time bygone.'" ^
There had in former times been meetings of the
Estates uncountenanced by royalty. We have seen
that the Reformation of 1560 was carried at such a
meeting ; but we have also seen that when the re-
gency of 1.567 was established, it was deemed prudent
1 It would appear that much of the business to be transacted in this
Parliament had been put in shape before it was known that it would
not have the royal countenance. To tlie Record edition of the Act
above cited there is this note : " The waiTants of this Act, and of many
of the subsequent Acts of this Parliament, originally set forth the
enacting authority in the usual style, commencing, ' Our Sovereign Lord
and Estates of Parliament.' They were altered before the passing of the
Acts, to meet the circumstances under which the Parliament was then
assembled." — Act. Pari., v. 259. In the superseded Record edition of
the Acts this alteration is visible, since the editor of that volume had
only the warrants, not the Acts, before him ; and he faithfully printed
the erasures and interlineations. I am indebted to the courtesy of the
Lord Clerk Register for tlie use of the new edition of the rescinded Acts,
not yet completed for jniljlication.
PARLIAMENT, 1640. 87
to re-enact the legislation of that year. All questions
relating to the participation of royalty in the delibera-
tions of the Estates, and the necessity of the royal as-
sent to their Acts, were surrounded by dubiety. Now,
however, for the first time, the Estates defied the Crown.
It was natural that, assembled under such conditions,
they should record a vindication of their position.
They asserted that the Crown had taken the first
step a-gainst precedent by seeking forcibly to bring the
sittings of 1639 to an end, and that the Estates them-
selves had shown the spirit of peace and conciliation
in agreeing to adjourn when they Avere not bound to
do so.^ They had sent two commissioners, the Lords
Dunfermline and Loudon, to Court to explain their
position. These messengers were asked if they came
with authority from the king's commissioner, Traquair ;
and when it was explained that they had no authority
from him, but rejoresented the Estates of Scotland,
they were refused an audience, and sent back. This
was deemed an act of contumely such as that great
1 The words in which they assert their constitutional position are
remarkable, and whatever might be said for or against them on pre-
cedent in Scotland, are not to be judged of b}' the English practice of
Parliament : " Because, contrary to our expectation, John, Earl of
Traquair, his majesty's commissioner, did take upon him, without con-
sent of the Estates, upon a jirivate warrant procured by himself against
his majesty's public patent under the great seal, to prorogate the Parlia-
ment to this second day of June, our duty both to king and country
did constrain us to make a public declaration in face of Parliament,
bearing that the prorogation of the Parliament without consent of the
Estates was against the laws and liberties of the kingdom, was without
precedent, example, and practice in this kingdom, . . . and that
whatsoever we might have done by the laudable example of our prede-
cessors in the like exigency and extremity, without any just offence to
authority, yet that our proceedings might be far from all appearance of
giving his majesty the smallest discontent, we notwithstanding did choose
to cease for that time from our public proceedings in Parliament."
88 CHARLES I.
assemblage, the Estates of the realm, had never been
required to endure at the hands of any monarch. But
on the other side it eould be pleaded that they were
messengers sent not to the king only, and that they
would take the opportunity of their presence in Lon-
ilon to say a word or two in secret to the party in
England who ^\'ere preparing work for the Long Par-
liament. It was farther pleaded by the Estates in
their justification, that their reassembling on the 2d
of June was a virtual bargain between them and the
king ; and it never yet was known that if one party
to a bargain failed to fulfil his part, the other was
precluded from carrying out the arrangement if it
had the power to do so.^
It was asserted by the Estates that everything was
done on their part that could be done to keep peace,
while his majesty's evil advisers were doing their best
to foment discord : " Scandalous relations of our
Parliamentary proceedings have been made at the
council-table of England, and the benefit of hearing
before the Council denied to our commissioners. Great
violence and outrage done by the Castle of Edinburgh,
not only against men and buildings, but women and
children. Our ships and goods taken at sea, and the
owners strijjped naked and barbarously used. A com-
mission given for sul^duing and destroying of this
whole kingdom. All things devised and done that
may make a rupture and irreconcilable war betwixt
the two kingdoms. Our commissioners hardly used
' Tlie Estates in their justification said tlie commissioner has assured
thein that the king would keep his " royal promise," and seemed " to be
so far from judging it unlawful to us to jjroceed at the day appointed,
in case we should be postponed and frustrated by new prorogations, that
he made often and open profession that he would join witli us therein."
PARLIAMENT, 1640. 89
while they were in England by restraints put upon
them, and the Lord Loudon still imprisoned. No
answer given unto them or returned unto us touching
our just demands, but in place thereof a declaration
given out denouncing war, and provoking the other
two kingdoms to come against us as traitors and
rebels. And when we had patiently endured all these
evils in hopes of some better news at this 2d of June,
appointed for sitting of the Parliament, hearing no-
thing from his majesty or his majesty's commissioner,
either to settle this kingdom according to the articles
of pacification, or to interrupt our proceedings;" there-
fore, for acquitting themselves of the great trust com-
mitted to them, " and for preventing the utter ruin
and desolation of this Kirk and kingdom," they are
constrained in the great exigency to abide together
until the business before them is completed.^
Before beginning with their legislative business, the
Estates indorsed the Assembly's testimony against the
Large Declaration, finding it " to be dishonourable to
God and His true religion, to this Kirk and kingdom,
to the king's majesty and to the Marquis of Hamilton,
then his majesty's commissioner, and divers other
persons therein, and to be full of lies." And they
ordained " the authors and spreaders thereof to be
most severely punished, according to the laws of this
kingdom against leasing- makers betwixt the king's
majesty and his subjects, slanderers of the king and
kingdom, and raisers of sedition and discord between
them ; that all others may be deterred from such dan-
gerous courses, God's honour may be vindicated, the
innocency of the Kirk and kingdom, and his majesty's
1 Act. Pari., Revised Record Edit., v. 256, 257.
90 CHARLES I.
justice and goodness may appear not only in censuring
such malefactors, but in discouraging all such under-
miners of his majesty's throne, and abusers of his
royal name, by prefixing the same to such scandalous
and dishonourable treatises." ^
The Estates confirmed the proceedings of the As-
sembly, and adopted the Covenant as an Act, requir-
ing all citizens to subscribe it under civil penalties
against defaulters. They began the application of this
test with themselves, requiring that each member of
the Estates should subscribe it, all who failed to do so
being disqualified to sit and vote — a rule to apply to all
subsequent meetings of the Estates. They facilitated
the importation of arms, and organised a system of
taxation in which defaulters were to be treated as
" non-Covenanters." They passed an Act establishing
triennial Parliaments. Arrangements were made for
the distribution of the vacated revenues of the bishops,
and the other secular rights affected by the depositions
passed by the Asseml)ly. Care was had formally to
ratify all things, whether of a civil or a military char-
acter, in furtherance of tlie Covenanting cause, and
to denounce as illegal all things done on the other
side. A distinct infusion of Puritanical spirit is vis-
ible in this Parliament in the matter of legislation
for Sabbath observance.
Before separating, they passed what afterwards
proved to be among the most important of their Acts.
It appointed a permanent " Committee of Estates " to
act when Parliament was not sitting. It consisted of
so many from each of the three Estates, according to
the new division. This powerful body was compact
' Act. Pari., Revised Record Edit., v. 264.
DEALINGS WITH FRANCE, 1639-40. 91
and movable, and was to act " in the camp " as well
as at the seat of Government. Having sat till the
11th of June, the Estates adjourned till November.
In their vindication allusion was made to the deten-
tion in prison of the Earl of Loudon. This arose out
of a transaction which calls for notice. The politi-
cal relations between England and France had become
precarious and lowering. The chief interest which af-
fected England abroad at that time concerned not the
nation but the royal family — it was the position of
the king's sister, the newly-widowed wife of the Elec-
tor Palatine, and of her son, the heir to the fortunes
and misfortunes of that house. England could not be
got to join France and the northern powers against
Austria and Spain, and the reason of this was said
to be that Charles was persuaded that he had more
to hope for the Palatinate from these two powers than
from France. Richelieu, indeed, had struck a strong
and very offensive blow in seizing the young Prince
Palatine as he passed through France in disguise ; it
was said that he was on his way to the Duke of Wei-
mar, as the bearer of proffers to induce that dealer in
mercenary troops to transfer his contingent from the
service of France to that of Austria. It was just at
this time that, by an intercepted letter. King Charles
found that the Scots Covenanters were seeking aid
from the King of France. The documents show that
those concerned in this negotiation were Montrose,
Rothes, Leslie the genera]. Mar, Montgomery, and
Loudon.^ A certain "William Colville was accredited
' One of the original papei-s still exists in the Wodrow collection of
the Advocates' Library. The signature of "A. Leslie" has invited
curiosity, because it was a Cavalier tradition that he was so illiterate as
92 CHARLES I.
to tlie French Court to negotiate the affair. It has
been supposed that it went no farther than the draft-
ing of the proposals, and that they never reached
France. But a recent French historian has found
documents, on his own country's side of the negotia-
tion, much more full in explanation of it than the few
preserved in Britain.^ These proffers came to no
practical result, because the Scots Covenanters found
in England better friends than France could by any
possibility give them. Had it been that a conquering
and oppressing English army was to march over Scot-
land, the landing of French troops in the country
would have been a natural event. The scenes change,
however, so rapidly in their display of new political
conditions, that while the French ambassador in Eng-
land is perplexed about the question whether the
seizure there of Colville on his way to France should
be resented, and about the intercourse to be held with
the English malcontents as a means of annoying the
Government, he has to turn suddenly to the considera-
te be unable either to write or read. Lord Hailes, who rarely indulges
in pleasantries, says ; " It is reported that once upon a march, passing
by a house, he said, ' There is the house where I was taught to read.'
'How, General!' said one of his attendants ; ' I thought that you had
never been taught to read.' ' Pardon me,' cried lie ; 'I got the length
of the letter G.' " — Memorials and Letters, Charles L, 61. There are
letters from him, in a fair hand of the day, in the Lothian Papers.
^ Eelations du Cardinal de Richeliea avec les Ecossois Covenantaires
et le Parlement d'Angleterre ; Mazure, Histoire de la Revolution de
1688 en Angleterre, iii. 402. Tlie author of this book notes with some
surprise how little foreknowledge there was in the wise Richelieu of
the consequences of helping to make the precedent for subjects resisting
their sovereign : " Ces documents suflSsent sans doute pour montrer sous
quel point de vue le Cardinal de Richelieu consideroit les troubles de
I'Angleterre. II ]i'y voyoit pas la question de la royaute en peril, mais
la question des interets de I'Autriche, auxquelles la Reine-niere et la
Rcine d'Angleterre etoient devouees." — P. 428.
DEALINGS WITH FRANCE, 1639-40. 93
tion of a new alarm prevailing in the Parliamentary
party — the alarm that King Charles is to get assist-
ance from a French army to establish despotic au-
thority over England.
The overture of men standing forth for civil liberty
and the Presbyterian Covenant to a despot and a Papist,
caused on its discovery much odium, which has ac-
companied it into later times. But this odium arose
on an English view of the affair. It was high treason,
as Clarendon said, for subjects to treat with a foreign
prince against their sovereign. No doubt it was so in
England; but, as we have seen, the Estates in Scotland
held tenaciously to foreign diplomacy, with the estab-
lishing of peace or war, as a power of their own not
deputed to the sovereign; and though the diplomatists
. in this instance had not an Act of the Estates to justify
them, they knew that they were doing what the Estates
would confirm. Then, their appeal was to that ancient
league with France which had never been solemnly
revoked. Look at the issue between England and
Scotland as it stood at the moment. No doubt the
king had professed to abandon several of the points
on which the quarrel had arisen. But every practical
political man knew then, and every student of the
times knows now, that had King Charles led a vic-
torious English army over Scotland, he would have
enforced on the country the Prelacy, the Service-book,
the Canons, and the High Commission, and that he
would have curtailed the power of the States and
raised the royal prerogative above it.
Hence it was the old story of the peril, and the
appeal to the friend who had ever been prompt in
time of peril. The English Crown having established
94 CHARLES I.
tyrannical prerogatives and offensive observances in
England, was sending an army into Scotland to sub-
due the country and break its free inhabitants to the
same rule. France could not forget that bloody field
in which, when all seemed lost, these sturdy Scots had
turned the tide against the same proud enemy. She
could not forget how, for this and many another act of
heroic kindness, she had reciprocated by effective help
at that terrible crisis when the conquest designed by
Henry VIII. in his tyrannic fury seemed coming to its
completion. Here, again, was a like peril — would their
friends of old be still their old friends ? In this light
the appeal of the Covenanters to the Government of
France was not to be counted as if a crew of factious
fanatics sought to further their rebellion against their
king and master by those who were the enemies of
both, but most of all the enemies of themselves. It
was the restrengthening of a bond that had been
weakened, not broken — a resuscitation of an old
loyal friendship which had softened with a touch
of chivalry the selfish politics and cruel wars of
feudal Europe.
Perhaps they toned their appeal somewhat to suit
foreign ears, when they said, as they did, that the Court
of High Commission dealt forth tyranny and cruelty
unequalled by the Inquisition in SjDain. But they
repeated only what they never swerved from at home
when they asserted their loyalty, saying that " our in-
tentions are no way against monarchical government,
but that we are most loyally disposed towards our
sacred sovereign, whose personal authority we will
maintain with our lives and fortunes ; but that all our
desires reach no farther than the preservation of our
DEALINGS WITH FRANCE, 1639-40. 95
religion and liberty of Church and kingdom established
by the laws and constitution thereof."
It was hardly to be expected that the English of
that day could see the matter in this view, yet the
Government Avent so far in the opposite direction as
to commit one of the most dangerous pieces of folly
committed in that period of blunders. The " Short
Parliament " began with a denunciation of the Scots
in strong terms as traitors and rebels. The king
founded sadly fallacious hopes on the effect of produc-
ing in that assembly the letters to France, and, as the
chief object of holding a Parliament, demanded a large
and immediate subsidy to provide for the war. The
Commons, however, voted grievances before supplies,
and the great charge of a treasonable correspondence
with a foreign enemy passed unnoticed out of sight.
But a worse thing was done. We have seen that the
Lords Dunfermline and Loudon, when they went to
Court after the Parliament of 1639, were sent away
without a hearing. They were permitted to return,
or, as it was said, ordered up to make explanations ;
and when they were in attendance, Loudon was seized
as one whose name was at the appeal to France, and
committed to the Tower. Loudon said he had his
pleas, which he was prepared to urge were he brought
to trial in Scotland, but he could not be arraigned in
England for his conduct as a Scottish subject. No
doubt, sending him to Scotland for trial was equiva-
lent to releasing him, but not the less would it be a
national outrage to deal Avith him in England. There
were whispers that he was to be put to death without
trial, as an enemy found in the position of a spy ; and
even this, though it might seem the harsher and more
g6 CHARLES I.
barl)arous fate, would scarce have been so deep a na-
tional insult as putting a Scots statesman on trial in
England for his actions in his own country. " There
were," says Burnet, "some ill instruments about the
king who advised him to proceed capitally against
Loudon, which is believed went very far ; but the
marquis opposed this vigorously, assuring the king
that if that were done Scotland was for ever lost."
The end was that Loudon was released untouched.
AVe are not told the reason why the policy on which
he was imprisoned was thus dropped ; but the affair
was one of the many in Avhich the unfortunate mon-
arch secured all that harvest of rancour that follows
on a blow without having the satisfaction of dealing it.^
ThoiTgh this affair does not hold a large place in
the usual histories of the civil war, it was one of the
turning - points by which great conclusions were
reached. According to Clarendon, it determined the
king and his immediate advisers to call a Parliament.
To meet the cost of a war both with France and Scot-
land there was no other possible resource. Then the
defence of England from a joint invasion of the French
and Scots was a far more hopeful cry than the policy
of sending an army to punish the pertinacious Scots.
^ Claremlon makes one of his picturesqvie mysteries out of the "strat-
agem," as he calls the release of Loudon : " This stratagem was never
understood, and was then variously spoken of, many believing he had
undertaken great matters for the king in Scotland, and to quiet that dis-
temper. . . . They who published their thoughts least made no
scruple of saying 'that if the policy were good an<l necessary of his first
commitment, it seemed as just and prudent to have continued him in
that restraint.' " — Vol. i. 144. Lord Northumberland, -writing to Lord
Conway, says : " The enlargement of Lord Loudon causes a belief here in
the world that we shall come to terms of accommodation with the Scots,
but seriously I do not know that any such thing is intended." — Bruce's
Notes, xix.
POSITION OF ENGLAND, 1640. 97
We are told by Clarendon, that instantly on the dis-
covery of the Scots appeal to France, the king " first
advised with that committee of the Council which
used to be consulted on secret affairs, what was to be
done." The conclave thought a Parliament so urgent
a necessity that on the same day the instruction was
issued by the king in Council to the Lord-Keeper to
issue the writs.^ These brouo;ht together the " Short
Parliament" on the 3d of April 1640 ; but that day's
work in Council ended in the assembling of the Long-
Parliament.
It would be a satisfaction to have a fuller account
than the ordinary histories afford of the condition and
temper of England during the short interval between
the two Parliaments. The latest voice from England
on this point says : " What that condition really was,
what the state of mind of the English people in 1640
towards the king, the Government, and the Scots, and
with reference to the then passing public events, is a
question of the deepest historical interest," since " the
treaty of Ripon cannot be understood without some
knowledge upon this subject far different from that
which can be acquired from the ordinary authorities." ^
I feel, as this author said, in reference to his own pro-
vince, that the question " requires for its proper
answer freer scope and a wider compass " than it can
obtain in a history of Scotland. It belongs essentially to
1 Clarendon, ed. 1705, i. 130, 131 ; ed. 1843, p. 53. That "committee
wliicli used to be consulted on secret affairs " is the germ of the modern
" Cabinet."
^ Notes of the Treaty carried on at Ripon between King Charles I.
and the Covenanters of Scotland, a.d. 1640, taken by Sir .John Borough,
Garter King-of-Arms. Edited from the original MS. in the possession
of Lieutenant - Colonel Carew, by John Bruce, Esq., E.S.A. Camden
Society. Preface, p. viii.
VOL. VII. a
98 CHARLES I.
the history of England ; and it is there that it should be
Avritten, so that the investigator in the peculiar region
of Scottish history should be able to refer to it as finally
adjusted and accepted by the English historians. As
the matter stands, let us note what is to be readily
found about the condition and temper of England at
that time. It was shown by the Short Parliament
itself, and more emphatically afterwards, that it was
something very different from that sunny prospect
which, according to Clarendon, soothed the king into
an endurance of a thing so detested as a Parliament :
" This long intermission, and the general composure of
men's minds in a happy peace and universal plenty
over the nation — superior, sure, to what any other na-
tion ever enjoyed — made it reasonably be believed, not-
withstanding the miirmurs of the people against some
exorbitancies of the Court, that sober men, and such
as loved the peace and plenty they were possessed of,
would be made choice of to serve in the House of
Commons ; and then the temjaer of the House of Peers
was not to be apprehended." A farther propitious
feature of the times was "the prejudice and general
aversion over the whole kingdom to the Scots ; and
the indignation they had at their presumption in their
thought of invading England, made it believed that a
Parliament would express a very sharp sense of their
insolence and carriage towards the king, and provide
remedies proportionable." ^
The organisation for collecting ship - money and
other feudal dues had been made so comj^lete and
commanding as to gather into the Exchequer all the
money that could by any available interpretation of
1 History, i. 130 ; ed. 184,3, p. 53.
POSITION OF ENGLAND, 1640. 99
the law come within those imposts. The revenue
from them seemed sufficient to sustain the Court and
Grovernment in time of peace, but when war approached
more was wanted. This more \vas to be obtained
through a Parliament ; but the Parliament was dis-
solved before it gave anything, and the effect of its
discussions and abrupt dismissal appears to have been
seriously to weaken the machinery for collecting the
feudal dues, and to shake the credit of the Government
with the moneyed world.^ The result is described by
one on whom heavy responsibility lay — the Earl of
Northumberland, who was to command the army of
the north : " Most of the ways that were relied on
for supplies of money have hitherto failed us, and for
aught I know we are likely to become the most de-
' This view, and the others following in the text, are founded on the
passages from record authorities furnished by Mr Bruce as examples of
the information available to the English historian. For instance, the
Sheriff of Hereford explains that, " upon notice of the late Parliament,
many of the chief-constables refused to levy the ship-money or come
before the examinant " (xii.) The Sheriff of Derby says : " I find such
opposition and evil-affectedness in the greatest part of the county, that
since the dissolution of the last Parliament they do not forbear to dare
me, and bid me distrain at my peril, giving forth threatening words
against me" (xiv.) The Sheriff of Cornwall finds that "the constables
make a very small return of ship-money; and when tliey distrain, very
few would buy any of the goods, so that for want of pasture they were
forced to return the cattle distrained to their owners again." The Sheriff
of Cambridge reports that "in the execution of the .ship-money writ at Mel-
bourne his bailiffs were assaulted by more than one hundred of the in-
habitants, five or six of them grievously beaten, and all of them hardly
escaping with their lives. The men dared not again go about that or
any other business of his majesty ; and svich was the opposition in divers
other parts of the county, that the sherifl' could not go through the ser-
vice unless course were taken for suppressing such insurrections " (xvii.)
The Sheriff of Oxford said that "wherever he came constables could
not be found at home ; gates were chained, locked, or barricaded ; all
officers refused to assist him, and the county would not pay but by dis-
tress " (xix.)
100 CHARLES I.
spised nation of Europe. To the regiments that are
now rising, we, for want of money, have been able to
advance but fourteen days' pay — the rest must meet
them upon their march towards Selby, and for both
the horse and foot already in the north we can for
the present send them but seven days' pay." ^ A
disinclination to render obedience to the Commission
of Array seconded the unwillingness to submit to the
feudal exactions. Whether from the sorry prospect of
pay, or distaste for the service, those who were con-
sidered liable to serve in the army resisted the con-
scription ; and when embodied, they were often so
mutinous as to be more dangerous to their officers than
they were likely to be to the enemy. ^
It is significant of what was passing through the
minds of some of these men al30ut events in England,
and the reference of these to the service for wliicli
' Ibid., xix.
^ Northumberland says, with the eloquence of desperation : " The city
of London, Kent, Surrey, Essex, Hertfordshire, Buckingham, and Bed-
fordshire are so damnably restive that I doubt we shall not get near our
number of men from these places ; the rest of the counties I hope will
do reasonable well in raising their men " (xv.) Certain deputy-lieuten-
ants coming to Bungay on press duty, say : " The soldiers fell into a mu-
tiny, threatening our deaths, beset us in our chamber, tept a watch upon
our horses, and waylaid us so as we were enforced to keep our chambers"
(xv.) It is reported of six hundred conscripts from Dorsetshire, passing
through Farringdon, in Berkshire, " they in a barbarous manner murdered
Lieutenant Mahon, one of their company, and have threatened the rest
of their commanders to put them to the sword, insomuch that they are
all fled ; and the soldiers being now at liberty, in probaliility will much
endanger the town and the country adjoining." While Northumberland
writes to Conway : " Our troops are upon their march from some of the
coimties, but I hear that they run so fast away that scarce half the num-
ber will appear at the rendezvous in the north " (xvi.) Conway, writ-
ing to Secretary Windbanli, puts this epigrammatic point to the whole
wretched affair : " I fear unpaid soldiers more than I do the Scots and
the devil to boot. God keep you from all three ! " (xxiv.)
POSITION OF ENGLAND, 1640. lOI
they were raised, that one cause of dangerous humours
arising among them seems to have been a suspicion of
Popish tendencies in their officers.^
It appears that among the practices for which these
troops were troublesome was the destruction of those
ecclesiastical decorations which associated the innovat-
ing party in the Church with Popery. They seemed
to be influenced by a desire to leave behind them
in this shape a protest, that in marching against the
Presbyterians in Scotland, they were not to be under-
stood as fighting the battle of Laud and his party.^
■■ At Marlborough it is reported of the company under the command
of Captain Drury, that suspecting him of Popery, they suggested that
all should take the sacrament — according to the form of the Church of
England, it is to be presumed : " The captain showing little inclination
to that motion, at least for his own receiving, the soldiers pressed him so
much the more to it ; and when they perceived he would not, they told
him plainly, if so be he will not receive the communion, and jiray with
them, they will not fight under him ; and in this manner they cashiered
their captain" (xv.) An officer writing from Cirencester, saj's: "The
Puritan rascals of the country had strongly possessed the soldiers that
all the commanders of our regiment were Papists, so that I was forced
for two or three days to sing psahns all the day I marched, for all their
religion lies in a psalm" (xxii.) Other instances were more tragic, as in
the report by the deputy-Ueu-tenants of Devon on the fate of Captain
Evers at the hands of his own company: " Forbearing to go to church,
they suspected him to be a Pap)ist, whereupon they set upon him and
murdered him." " On endeavoui-ing to arrest four of them, above
twenty others came forward declaring that they were all equally guUty,
and if they would hang one they should hang all" (xx.)
^ Lord Maynard reports to the Council that " the insolences of the
soldiers billeted in Essex every day increase. Within these few days
they have taken upon them to reform churches, and even in tlie time
of divine service to pull do^vn the rails about the communion-tables."
Lord Warwick reports to Secretary Vane an outrage of this kind attended
by peculiar ingratitude : " Dr Barkham, parson of Bocking, having given
the soldiers a barrel of beer and fifty shillings, I found them much dis-
tempered by drink ; and in that distemper they went to his church and
pulled up the rails about the communion-table, and brought these before
their captain's lodging and l)Urnt them. The like they did to another
town near thereunto" (xxiii.)
I02 CHARLES I.
The one ray of hope through these difficulties was
in itself also of a dismal and desperate character. It
was that the Scots mioiit be worse off than themselves,
and so be routed and conquered before a close con-
test should show the weakness of the English army.
Northumberland casts aside his difficulties of detail
about fortified posts by the general reflection : " But
we are going upon a conquest with such a power, that
nothing in that kingdom will be able to resist us."^
A point of extreme interest is naturally sought out
through every scrap of internal information about
England at that time. To what extent had the Scots,
who began the great civil war, an understanding or
alliance with the English Parliamentary party at this
juncture? As the question might have been otherwise
put at the time, how far had the rebels in Scotland
made practical arrangements with their accomplices
in England 1 Rumours were accepted here and con-
tradicted there about a bond of co-operation with the
Scots, signed by sixty-three men of note in the Parlia-
mentary party. Burnet, in one of his circumstantial
stories, tells how, when Dunfermline and Loudon were
in London, the Lord Saville dealt with them in the
name of the chiefs of the party, and showed a written
obligation signed by some of them to co-operate with
the Scots, if they would march into England. This
was sent to Scotland by a confidential messenger, who
concealed it in a hollowed walking-stick, and travelled
as a pedlar. It Avas to be shown only to Argyle,
Warriston, and Henderson. The document was spu-
rious, and the signatures to it were all forged by
Saville. In completing the story from the authorities
' Ibid., viii.
POSITION OF ENGLAND, 1640. 103
of the period, the exposure of the forgery makes a
dramatic scene. At the treaty of Eipon the Scots
reproach those who, after having invited them into
England, instead of entering on mutual confidences,
treated them as strangers. They denied the invita-
tion, and Saville had to act the part of the detected
forger. But this will not harmonise with another
revelation, which, professing to give the papers that
passed between the Scots and the Parliamentary
leaders, imports that the Scots distinctly asked for
assistance, and that it was as distinctly refused,
although the refusal was so toned as to show a sym-
pathy in their cause, and an anticipation that it might
become the common cause of both countries.^
^ The story is told in Burnet's ' Summary of Affairs before the Restor-
ation.' He gives it a circumstantial air by talking of Warriston, one of
the parties to it, as his own uncle. Clarendon mentions it generally as
one of the suspicions connected with Saville's evil reputation. The
scene at Ripon is given in Nalson's Collection (ii. 427), "out of the
Memoirs of the late Earl of Manchester, then Lord Mandeville, an actor
in this affair." The opening of the scene is thus : " When the Scotch
commissioners had passed the ceremonies and general civilities of the
first meeting with the English commissioners, the Lord Loudoun and
Sir Archibald Johnston applied themselves particularly to the Lord
Mandeville, desiring him to give them a private meeting, that they might
impart to him something of near concernment to himself and others the
lords then present. This was readily granted ; and they then went to
the Lord Mandeville's lodging, where being set together, the Lord Lou-
doun began with very severe expostulations, charging the Earls of Bedford,
Essex, and Warwick, the Lord Yiscount Say and Scale, the Lord Brook,
Saville, and himself, with the highest breach of their promises and en-
gagements, professing that they had never invaded England but upon
confidence of their keeping faith with them, according to those articles
which they had signed and sent unto them." Then comes the explosion.
The doubts that any such affair ever occured are strengthened by the
absence of any reference to it in Mr Bruce's Ripon Papers. The sup-
position that there had been a real invitation to the Scots connects
itself with another matter. This Lord Mandeville is the same Lord
Kimbolton who was impeached along with " the five members ;" and
one of the articles of impeachment was, " That they have traitorously
104 CHARLES I.
That the Scots acted on an invitation from England,
whether genuine or spurious, is unnecessary to the
conformity of events, and indeed rather tends to
disturb than to complete their sequence. The policy
of the Scots was, if they were attacked, to retaliate ;
and the policy of their retaliation was to get possession
of the great coal-fields which supplied the fires of
London. There were many opportunities for exchang-
ing sympathies and sentiments between statesmen of
all classes in the two countries, and it is needless to
inquire what they said to each other.
The tendency to seek a solution of the coming
events in a specific contract or treaty has grown from
an imperfect perception of the natural bond of com-
mon interests and dangers. The opponents of the
prerogative, l^oth in England and in Scotland, far
apart as they afterwards separated, stood at that time
on the common ground that each professed to suffer
from innovations on the established constitutional
practice of their Government. The larger violation of
the constitution fell to Scotland, because her institu-
invited and engaged a foreign power to invade liis majesty's kingdom of
England" (Pari. Hist., ii. 1005). Pym, in his celebrated defence, pointed
this charge towards a later turn of events: " If to join with the Parlia-
ment of England by free vote to crave brotherly assistance from Scotland
— kingdoms both under obedience to one sovereign, both his loyal sub-
ject.s — to suppress the rebellion in Ireland, which lies gasping everyday,
in danger to be lost from his majesty's subjection, be to invite and
encourage foreign power to invade this kingdom, then am I guilty of
high treason." — Ibid., T014. The place where the correspondence itself
is professed to be given for the first time is Oldmixon's History (i. 141).
Here the Scots specifically ask their friends to help them " by their
rising in one or sundry bodies among themselves, or by sending to us
near the Borders some present supply of money, or clear evidence where
we shall find it near hand." In the document professing to bean an.swer
to this the request is refused, as to grant it might involve a charge of
treason.
INVASION OF ENGLAND, 1640. 105
tions were the more antagonistic to the projects of the
innovators. Thus the English constitutionalists had
before them an example of what the prerogative was
capable of attempting. It was a natural thought to
cross their minds — to use the figurative language of
Rehoboam — " AVe have been chastised with whips ; let
us see how those who have been chastised with scor-
pions will act." Those who looked at the innovations
in Scotland rather in sorrow than in anger, saw at an
early point the English sympathy, and were alarmed
by the sight. It had gone on increasing ; and it could
not be smothered by the old panic-cry about a Scots
invasion, even when this was aggravated by an appeal
to France for assistance. It was in the north, where
the hatred of the Scots used to be the strongest, that
the sympathy with them was becoming the greatest.
" I am persuaded," said Osborne, the Vice-President
of York, " if Hannibal were at our gates, some had
rather open them than keep him out."^
It was easy to reassemble the army so recently dis-
persed in Scotland. Leslie was again the commander,
and in the middle of July he mustered at Dunglas a
force of more than twenty thousand foot and two thou-
sand five hundred horse. Again we are fortunate in the
circumstantial Baillie having accompanied the host.
Hard pressure had to be applied to raise money. The
regular taxation took time, and twenty thousand merks
were required daily ; and " from England there was no
expectation. of moneys till we went and fetched them."
Money was lent and given by the enthusiastic friends of
the cause, and contributions of plate were taken to the
mint. As it Avas desirable that their march through
1 Notes on Treaty of Ripon, xxvi.
I06 CHARLES I.
England should be as inoflfensive as it could be ren-
dered, a serviceable equipment of tents was required,
so that they might neither quarter on the people nor do
mischief by gathering materials for hutting. The linen
stored up, according to national custom, by the thrifty
housewives of Edinburgh, supplied this want. The
eloquence of a popular preacher did much to open this
resource ; for " RoUock had so sweetly spoken to the
people's minds on the Sunday, that the women, after-
noon and to-morrow, gave freely great store of that
stuff — almost sufficient to cover all our army."^
The army was to abide some time on the Border,
and then, if necessary, march into England. On the
20th of AugTist they crossed the Tweed at Coldstream.
Lots were drawn as to the order of march through the
river, and chance gave the lead to Montrose's contin-
gent. He made himself conspicuous by his zeal and
alacrity in leading the way and carrying through his
own people — it was in keeping with the ardour of his
nature ; but some said that on this occasion the ex-
hibition of ardour was but a mask to hide treachery.
They passed southward in detachments, all to assemble
on Newcastle Moor. When they reached this spot
they found that the town of Newcastle was defended,
and that a considerable English force, under Conway,
was at hand on the south side of the Tyne. It was
clear, then, they must fight for the mastery of New-
castle and the district around, otherwise the English,
having both sides of the river, would command North-
umberland. Leslie determined on the strategy of
turning the enemy's flank. The chief fortifications of
the town were of course towards the north. Listead,
' Baillie's Letters, i. 255.
BATTLE OF NEWBURN, 1640. 107
therefore, of besieging the place from that side — de-
fended, as it would be, by a considerable force — he
determined to cross the Tyne, and fight that force in
the open field. It was a sound civil policy, if it could
be made good as a military project, since it kept clear
of the terrible process of forcing the city by storming.
The point selected for the crossing was the ford of
Newburn, about five miles above Newcastle. Conway,
who had with him ten thousand foot and two thou-
sand horse, was enabled to afi'ord a force, estimated
variously at from four to six thousand men, to hold
the ford. They raised earthworks and mounted several
cannon. The bank on their side was a flat haugh.
On the Scots side it was steep, so that the English
force was overlooked and iu some measure commanded
by the Scots. On the south side any attempt by the
Scots to force a passage promised an affair in which
artillery well placed and served would defy the power
of numbers, for no artillery was seen in the Scots
camp. Here, however, Leslie's German experience
enabled him to effect a surprise. Under his direction
there had been a manufacture in Edinburgh of tem-
porary cannon. They seem to have been made of tin
for the bore, with a coating of leather, all secured by
tight cordage. A horse could carry two of them, and
it was their merit to stand a few discharges before
they came to pieces. Leslie had some of these masked
among bushes on the river -bank, others he got up
the tower of Newburn church. AYhen the Scots began
to cross, and Conway's guns opened on them, to the
amazement of the English they were answered by a
stronger battery commanding them. The roar of
artUlery from a force believed to be destitute of that
I08 CHARLES I.
arm is one of those terrible surprises which tax the
nerves of highly-disciplined veterans, and here it befell
raw recruits. They were at once broken up into con-
fusion, and the Scots passed over. They found no
enemy to resist them except a small body of high-
sj)irited Cavalier gentlemen, finely mounted, and armed
with breastplates. These fought hard ; but when the
whole Scots army came over, the contest was so un-
equal that they were forcibly taken prisoners. It was
not the policy of the Scots to shed much blood, and
they made no attempt to meddle with the bulk of the
English force in its retreat. The loss on the English
side, even, only extended to some forty or fifty — on
the Scots to about a tenth of the number. Such Avas
the battle by which the Scots army forced the passage
of the Tyne — a trifle in the bloody annals of warfare,
yet so momentous that in critical interest it may well
rival the famous passage of the Rubicon.
The scenery around the cjuiet village of Newburn is
not naturally remarkable, but it has a signal interest
in this, that few other battle-fields present on their
surface so distinct an impression of the nature of
the contest. The steep bank on the north side of the
Tyne is still scrubby as it was when Leslie's light guns
were masked by the bushes, and the short thick Nor-
man tower of the villaoje church looks as if it had
been made to carry wall - pieces. Standing here, we
overlook the flat haugh where the English army was
uselessly fortified, as the gallery overlooks the stage
of a theatre ; and we sec at once how fatal was the
mistake when the English general supposed that the
Scots had no cannon. A general survey of the river
from Leslie's jjosition shows, what inquiry will confirm,
BATTLE OF NEWBURN, 1640. 109
that Newburn is the nearest point to Newcastle where
the Tyne conld be forded by troops. The river has
many sweeping loops, and at any one of these, had
the water been shallow enouoli, the Scots conld have
passed nnmolested, through the well-recognised mili-
tary advantage of having the inside of the curve. At
Newburn the water is so shallow that in dry weather
a child can take the ford, and we must conclude that
it would not have been forced had any other part of
the river been available. ^
^ The only account of tlie battle, so far as the author is aware, by a
military man present in it, is the one given, by way of vindication of
himself, by the defeated general. In saying that his soldiers were
" unacquainted with the cannon," he must be held to mean that they
were not aware of their existence till they opened fire : —
"The Scots having made a battery and drawn down their army, our
works were provided with men to defend them, and with others to
second them. Six troops of horse were placed to charge the Scots
where they came over, and six or seven more were placed to second
them. When the Scots foi'ces were in readiness, and their cannon
placed, our works were not jJroof against them ; the soldiers were un-
acquainted with the cannon, and therefore did not endure many shot ;
those that were to second them followed their example.
"The horse charged the Scots, and drove them back into the river;
but the cannon beating through, some of our troops that were sent to
second went off when they saw the place forsaken. They should have
gone on the left hand, that they might have gone off with the foot; but
mistaking their direction, went on the right hand, which carried them
up the hill, where they found some troops. Whilst they consulted what
was best to be done, the Scots horse came up in two divisions, and with
them ten thousand musketeers. The first charge was upon the regiment
commanded by Lord Wilmot, who was there taken prisoner, his men
forsaking him, and falling foul of some troops of the Lord Conway's
regiment, disordered them ; the rest being charged, did as they saw
others do before them.
" The cause of the loss that day was the disadvantage of the ground,
and the slight fortification, which the shortness of the time would not
afford to be better. Neither would it admit us to make any works upon
the hni where we stood opposite against the Scots. And when we came
to sight, the soldiers did not their parts as they ought to have done,
being the most of them the meanest sort of men about London, and
unacquainted with service, and forgetting to do that which they had oft
no CHARLES I.
The way to Newcastle was now open — a detach-
ment of the army had only to cross the bridge and
enter the town.
In the histories inspired by the great struggle of
the day, the capture of Newcastle is one of those
gentle quiet affairs that call for little further notice
than the transference of Edinburgh and Dumbarton
into new ruling hands. But to the community of
that town it was an astounding and terrible event.
If there were those in England who expected to meet
the Scots as friends and allies, Newcastle was not the
place where these were to be found. In their tradi-
tions the Scots were men of blood and rapine. They
were denounced in the civic ordinances as a race unfit
to mingle with the civilised sons of trade and industry.
There were men alive who in their youth could remem-
ber the families of Northumbrian farmers fleeing for
their lives within the protecting walls of Newcastle,
and could recall, when the panic was over, how the
citizens in fearful curiosity visited the ruined grange,
to see its emptied byres and stables, and the bleeding
bodies of its defenders. If in the days of the flat-
bottomed boats the corporation had awakened to find
themselves in the hands of a French army landed at
the mouth of the Tyne, the surprise and consternation
could not have been greater than on that summer day,
a hundred and sixty years earlier, when the town and
its great coal-field were seen in the possession of the
Scots invaders.
The colliers outside the town fled from their works.
been commanded and taught." — The Lord Conway's Relation concerning
the Passages in the late Northern Expedition, 1640 ; Hailes's Memorials
and Letters, Charles L, 102, 10.3.
CAPTURE OF NEWCASTLE, 1640. Ill
The citizens — all but a few who instantly escaped —
had to submit to the restraints of a garrison town,
and to remain at home, or absent themselves on
leave and under precautions against the removal
of property. A citizen, recovered from the first
panic, and seeing that there is order, at all events,
if not safety, gets an opportunity to write to a friend
by sea, and says, " I have taken the more freedom to
enlarge myself, and acquaint you with the true state
of our conditions." "It is true," he says, " they have
invited, and by all means endeavoured, to di-aw us
back to our dwellings in this town, where we live
together quietly enough for appearance, being in this
town not troubled with their common soldiers, who
are kept in their quarters in the camp. Some com-
manders and men of greater rank living with us in
the town, we enjoy hitherto all our own goods and
merchandise which we have in possession, the money
excepted, which, while the terror of the armies lay
upon us, and their intentions not known, they easily
persuaded us to lend upon their own security, which
I assure you was the greatest part of the ready money
seen in the town, some having so much providence as
to transport their estates away before." ^ Another
says : " Many families gone, leaving their goods to
the mercy of the Scots, who possessed themselves of
such corn, cheese, beer, &c., as they found, giving the
owners thereof, or some in their stead, some money
in hand, and security in writing for the rest, to be
^ Letter from an Alderman of Newcastle, 8tli September 1640 ; Re-
prints of Rare Tracts and Imprints of Ancient Manuscripts, chiefly illus-
trative of the History of the Northern Counties, and printed at the Press
of M. A. Richardson : seven volumes — vol. i.
112 CHARLES I.
paid at four or six montlis in money or corn ; and if
they refuse, said the Scots, sucli is the necessity of the
army, that they must take it without security rather
than starve." ^
These petty details bear on the great difficulty of the
army's position. It was strong enough to help itself,
but that was not the policy of its leaders. However
willing the Government of Scotland might be to bear
a burden in the cause, the support of an army exceed-
ing twenty thousand men on foreign soil was beyond
their pecuniary ability. The problem was, how to be
good neighbours with the English of the north, and
yet be fed by them — in other words, how to buy from
them, and pay them out of nothing.
It ended, as on other like occasions, in the levying
of contributions to be paid some time or other from
some fund. We are told how " the mayor and alder-
men of Newcastle pretends inability to pay their two
hundred pound a-day. We were forced to put a guard
about their town-house till we got new assurances from
them. According to our declaration, we took nothing
for nought, only we borrowed on good security so
much money a - day as was necessary for our being,
to be repaid long before our departure." -
The burden, as we shall afterwards find, was removed
from the district and spread over England. Mean-
while the citizens of Newcastle had an opportunity
of finding that there was some difference between this
well-ordered army and the incursions of the Teviotdale
and Eskdale marauders, which brought terror to the
hearts of an earlier generation. As it was in the
destiny of things that the Scots were soon afterwards
' Newcastle Reprints, i. 8. ^ Baillie's Letters, i. 262.
CAPTURE OF NEWCASTLE, 1640. II3
to revisit them, the character of their present dealings
"with the community had doubtless its influence on
their subsequent reception. King Charles on his way
north had received the loyal applause of the corpora-
tion, and they proved their sincerity by the contingent
they supplied to his force.^
Public opinion was at that juncture changing rap-
idly in England ; and many who looked to the Scots
in 1640 as invading enemies, afterwards welcomed
them at their later visit as friends and allies. The
situation is thus described by Baillie : —
" In the king's magazine were found good store of
biscuit and cheese, and five thousand arms, musket,
and pikes, and other provision. Messrs Henderson and
Cant preached to a great confluence of people on the
Sunday. My Lord Lothian, with his regiment, was
placed to govern the town — our camp lay without.
The report of this in all our pulpits did make our peo-
ple sound humble and hearty thanks to the name of
our God, in the confidence of Avhose help this work was
begun, and on whose strength it does yet rely — not
well knowing what to do next ; for many a time from
the beginning we have been at a nonplus, but God
helped us over."^ They seemed to be, indeed, carried
forward on the wings of destiny. They took Durham,
Tynemouth, and Shields without a struggle. News
came to them that Dumbarton Castle had surrendered
on the day when their army forced the passage at
Newburn; and a few days later came the news that
^ "The town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne furnislied 250 pikemen, 250
musketeers, and 350 dragoons for the king's service," a larger force than
all the rest of Northumberland supplied. — Letter from a Royalist of
Newcastle, introduction ; Newcastle Reprints, iv.
' Letters, i. 257.
VOL. VIL H
114 CHARLES I.
the garrison of Edinburgh Castle had been turned out
in the manner we have seen. Though it was clear to
the enthusiasts who gave impulse to the enterprise
that God was fighting for them, yet there was prac-
tical sense and moderation enough in that host to bid
them rejoice with trembling. They immediately took
to their old practice of supplicating, and never in
their dangers and difficulties did they approach the
throne with more submissive and deferential loyalty
than in this hour of triumph. "We only implore," they
say, " that we may, without farther opposition, come
into your majesty's presence, for obtaining from your
majesty's justice and goodness satisfaction to our just
demands. We, your majesty's most humble and loyal
subjects, do still insist in that submiss way of petition-
ing which we have keeped since the beginning, and
from which no provocation of your majesty's enemies
and ours, no adversity that we have before sustained,
nor prosperous success can befall us, shall be able to
divert our minds ; most humbly entreating that your
majesty would, in the depth of your royal wisdom,
consider at last our pressing grievances and losses,
and with the advice and consent of the Estates of the
kingdom of England convened in Parliament, settle a
firm and durable peace against all invasions by sea or
land."
Tn this last sentence there was a deep and formid-
able meaning. It announced, and for the first time,
that there was a common cause between the Scots in-
vaders and the English Parliament, and referred to the
two as two elements of force that must in the necessity
of things coalesce. Without a key in the history of
the times to this and other parts of the " supplication,"
CAPTURE OF NEWCASTLE, 164O. I15
the casual reader might take it for a timid appeal by
some poor creatures who, on their peaceable and in-
offensive passage to the quarter where they were
to represent their griefs and sufferings, had been
despitefully assailed by their enemies, and had been
providentially enabled to get clear of these perils
of the way, regretting at the same time that their
assailants had brought on themselves some casualties.
After all their sufferings, extreme necessity had con-
strained them, for their relief, to come into England,
where they were peaceably passing through the
country, harming no one, and paying for what they
needed, "till," they say, "we were pressed by strength
of arms to put such forces out of the way as did,
without our deserving, and — as some of them have
at the point of death confessed — against their own
consciences, oppose our peaceable passage at Newburn-
on-Tyne, and have brought their blood upon their own
heads against our purposes and desires."
The king received this document at York. He was
already in the midst of a sea of troubles when his
defeated troops came scattering in upon him. The
victors had let it be known that they were prepared
to march on to York ; and as surely as they did, so
would they again scatter the king's army before them.
His answer to the appeal seemed to paxtake of the
trouble and confusion of his spirit ; but it sufficed for
the time, since its general import was, that before
striking he would listen. It was signed by the Earl
of Lanark, Hamilton's brother, as Secretary of State
for Scotland.^
The Scots sent in a paper of seven demands, not so
1 Rushwortli, iii. 1255, 1256.
Il6 CHARLES I.
important in tlieir own substance as because they were
a basis on which conference might be held. Perhaps
the most significant of them was for protecting from
the imposition of "new oaths" their compatriots in
England and Ireland. The king intimated that the
whole state of the case was to be laid before that great
council of the peers which, following a practice which
had grown obsolete, he had summoned at York. The
great council recommended the holding of a treaty, to
which the Scots should send representatives. The
time fixed for it was the 1st of October, and the place
Ripon, in Yorkshire. Eight commissioners represented
Scotland : two nobles, Dunfermline and Loudon, al-
ready well acquainted with the ground they were
to go over ; two representatives of the smaller barons ;
two clergymen, one of them Alexander Henderson,
the great preacher. The Covenant was farther
represented by the great Church lawyer Warriston,
and the town-clerk of Dundee represented the burghal
community. These gentlemen showed how suspi-
cious the Scots had become, by requesting a safe-
conduct, not only under the sign-manual, but under
the signatures of the assembled peers ; but this being
refused with something like a rebuke, they were con-
tent to drop the request.
The commissioners had ample opportunities of diving
into the recesses of the c[uarrel in the mass of disputa-
tive documents which had accumulated round it. In
addition to those already noticed, a later and fruitful
crop had appeared. They are of less moment and in-
terest, however, to the student of the present day, than
those which preceded warlike action. In these we see
the gradual growth of the conditions which brought
TREATY OF RIPON, 1640. II7
on the quarrel. The later controversy is in general
but tiresome comment, in the shape of attack and
defence, on the events passing before the world. The
most important of these Avas a continuation of the
king's Large Declaration, with the title, "His Majesty's
Declaration concerning his Proceedings with his Sub-
jects in Scotland since the Pacification in the Camp
near Berwick." ^ It has the same sort of qualified
success as the old Declaration. Grant that the king-
was an absolute monarch, he shows that he yielded
with wonderful facility to the desires of his trouble-
some subjects, abandoning his own better judgment
to yield to their unreasonable caprices. The Scots
printed and circulated in England a paper called ' The
Lawfulness of our Expedition into England manifested.'
Whatever interest attached to this document has been
recently enhanced by the discovery of a copy of it en-
riched with Laud's marginal notes. As they are the
abrupt comments set down as he read and grew angry
in reading, they probably give us his and his master's
political creed more broadly and emphatically than
we can find them in the deliberative announcements
contained in the king's Declarations and other State
papers. The spirit of these notes cannot be better
told than in the words of him who found and edited
them : " Taking the notes in connection with the state-
ments of the Scots, we have at one glance the views
of both parties. Those of the archbishop were simple
in the extreme. Politically he had but one complaint
to make against the Scots. It was their ' duty' to have
obeyed the king. They failed in this respect, and
that failure brought on all the succeeding trouble.
1 It will be found in Rushwortli, iii. 1018, and in other places.
Il8 CHARLES I.
As applicable to the king's commands, no question of
right or wrong, of reason or unreason, of legality or
the contrary, seems in the slightest degree to have
disturbed the equanimity of the archbishop. In his
estimation the whole case turned upon one single con-
sideration. The premises were unquestionable, and
the conclusion irresistible. The Scots had not yielded
'the dutiful obedience of subjects;' they could not,
therefore, be otherwise than to blame, and not less so
in the sight of God than in that of their sovereign
and of the archbishop." ^
The commissioners of both kingdoms assembled
' Bruce, preface to Notes of the Treaty carried on at Eipon, xl. The
following specimens may be selected from the Scots manifesto and
Laud's criticisms on it ; —
The Manifesto. Laud's Notes.
" As all men know and confess what is the great " Noue of these ne-
f orce of necessity, and how it doth j ustify actions cessary, if thej- would
otherwise unwarrantable, so can it not be denied ''*^''' yielded due obe-
that -we must either seek our peace in England at '1"^"'^« t° "'«"' kmg."
this time, or lie under three heavy burthens which
we are not able to bear. First, we must maintain
armies on the Borders," &c.
"This we say not from fear, but from feeling; "No growth iieces-
for we have already felt, to our unspeakable preju- sary when they might
dice, -what it is to maintain armies, what to want '\^^^. Prevented the be
traiBc, what to want administration of justice :
and if the beginning of these evils be so heavy,
what shall the growth and loug continuance of
them prove unto us ? — so miserable a being all men
would judge to be worse than no being."
" If we consider the nature and quality of this " if this were true,
expedition, it is defensive, and so the more justi- 'tis not defensive."
liable. The king's majesty, misled by the craft and
cruel faction of our adversaries, began this year's
war — not we."
" We have laboured in long-suifering, by suppli- " Save yielding the
cations, informations, commissions, and all other dutiful obedience of
means possible, to avoid this expedition." subjects."
When they talk of "invasions by sea which liave spoiled us of our
ginning by doing but
their duty."
TREATY OF RIPON, 164O. 1 19
accordingly at Ripon, on the 1st of October 1640, and
began business next day. There were, as there always
are in such conferences, minor details of business to
be adjusted at the beginning. The king, for instance,
desired that some persons in his own interest should
attend as " assistants ; " for the English commissioners
did not properly represent the Crown, but were ac-
credited by the great council of the peers. The Scots
seemed not to concern themselves with the English
assistants ; but they were jealous of the presence of
Traquair, Morton, and Lanark in that capacity. They
were told that these attended not to vote or take part
in the conference, but, as persons versant in the busi-
ness of Scotland, to explain matters relating to that
country which might be unintelligible to Englishmen ;
and some preliminary diplomacy was necessary to
keep these assistants within such limits.
On the general question the Scots felt the ground
consolidating, as it were, beneath their feet day by day.
In every dij)lomatic conference there are truths be-
hind any that appear on the smooth and tranquil face
of the discussions ; and the great truth behind the
treaty of Ripon was, that the Scots were absolute
masters of the situation. Did they come as enemies ?
Then they were invaders who had conquered the
north of England, and redeemed for their country that
ancient district of Northumberland which the voice of
tradition assigned as an ancient possession of the Scot-
ships and goods," the comnientator says, with angry astonishment, " The
king invade his owti ! "
At one point he gets so angry as to employ a scurvy jest frequently
used hy the common people of England against the Scots of that day.
Where they say that for the provisions of their army they either paid or
gave security, he notes, " Not worth three of their lice."
120 CHARLES I.
tish Crown ; and in the existing condition of England
there was no rational prospect that the conquest Avould
be taken out of their hands. This great calamity had
a Government, by its feebleness or its folly, or by
something worse than either, brought upon England ;
and all who befriended the Government and valued the
honour of England must avert such a stigma at any
sacrifice.-' Did the Scots come as friends ? Then to
the Government they were friends by mere forced
courtesy. Their real friendship was for that great
Parliamentary party which Avas about to rise against
the Government. They were conscious of the thorough
amity of that party. The great voice of England was
(•ailing for a Parliament, and the Scots put in their
word too for a Parliament ; in fact, before the commis-
sioners left Ripon the writs had been issued for " the
Long Parliament," and it was the Scots who had pro-
cm^ed this for their English friends.
In whatever sense the word was to be taken, they
were called and were dealt with as friends. Well, if
friends, they were friends who had done eminent
service to England at much sacrifice to themselves. It
was but fair that their friendship should be requited
—that their sacrifices in the cause of their English
friends should at all events be refunded. In short,
the army had been embodied and marched across the
' Among some notes of what was said in tlie council at York — notes
intended apparently to refresh the memory of the notemaker — there are
some glimpses of meaning intelligible to others, and among these nearly
the most distinct is a passionate burst by Stratford. It wiU be under-
stood that "this army" means the English, " the other " the Scotch:
'• If this army dissolve and disband, the other army being, as it is, in
such a posture, this country is lost in two days, and the fire will at last
go to the farthest house in the street. No history can mention so great
an infamy as the deserting this." — Hardwicke's State Papers, ii. 211.
TREATY OF RIPON, 1640. 121
Border in the service of England, therefore the expense
incurred and yet to be incurred in that service must
be paid by England. If not, the Scots could easily
help themselves. They hinted that they would be
content with the estates of the Papists and of the
bishops, who were their natural enemies, and they
began by taking possession of the princely domains of
the see of Durham. Some abrupt notes of private
conferences held among each other by the English
lords might be likened to the hurried and nervous
estimate of resources for the purchase of life and
liberty by captives in the hands of banditti ; or perhaps
a more appropriate analogy would be the discussions
by the authorities of a beleaguered town on the best
method of raising ransom-money.'^
' For instance, the following, in whicli it is to be understood that the
reporter only sets down one or two leading words by way of memo-
randum of the purport of what each said : —
" The lords retire.
E. Bristoll. — They say if they cannot live in one place they will live
in another.
They will come with an army able to obtain their demands.
Not fall into particulars of lessening their army, but, by way of in-
ducement, to offer them ^20,000 a-month.
E. Burks [Earl of Berkshire]. — To speak with Mr Treasurer, who
knows the country, whether they are able.
3fr Treasurer. — Those four counties and Newcastle not able to pay
that sum. No trade, but only for a month about ^12,000 to be raised.
They propose they will presently have money without victuals,
which they cannot do.
They speak of recruiting — to bind them from recruiting, and to have
a cessation of arms.
Let nothing be known to them of anything out of the counties.
E. Holland. — He supposes it is a proposition that the counties here-
about will find.
E. Burks. — Whether offer it without consulting with Yorkshire.
E. Holland. — It must be had, and therefore fit to be offered.
Lord Saville. — They will retire, and if they say they cannot accept
it, whether they will offer more.
122 CHARLES I.
There was much haggling about the actual amount
of money to be paid. It is not necessary that we
should impute all the discussions to the mere merce-
nary spirit of parting with and pocketing so much
coin. The Scots had further objects than taking a
bribe to return home, and the furtherance of these
objects was intimately connected not only with the
amount to be paid to them, but the form and con-
ditions of its payment. They asked £40,000 a-
month, but this was refused. They then reduced
their demand to £30,000 — finally the allowance was
If you offer it, it must be found, and in conclusion it goes upon all
the kingdom.
If they say they cannot accept it, we to propose unto them our
reasons — that we are their friends, never did them ivr-ong.
To send to Newcastle to know whether they will receive this with
some of the county.
In the mean time to treat of the other heads, and us to treat with the
gentlemen of the counties.
Lord Saville. — Not to let the Scots know, of our treaty with the
counties.
Lord Wharton. — Let it be proposed to be only out of the counties in
danger.
£. Holland. — To consider, if they refuse the sum, to think what to
do, considering the great danger of the kingdom ; but to give them no
resolution this morning, but take into resolution to answer in the after-
noon."— Bruce's Notes of the Treaty of Eipon, 33-35.
Again, on 24th October, as the meetings draw to a close : —
" The lords commissioners retire.
The gentlemen of Cumberland and Westmoreland are already pre-
pared to come into contribution.
A letter written to those counties, and this to be shown unto the
Soots commissioners.
They have already called the gentlemen of these shires — Sir Patricius
Curwen, Sir George Dawson, and Sir Philip Musgrave — and are now
writing a letter which my Lord Wharton read.
E. Bristoll. — To add to this, they will procure the strength of the
great council of York.
They will engage themselves to endeavour all means at London with
the Parliament to see it pierformed." — Ibid., 65.
TREATY OF RIPON, 164O. 123
fixed at £850 a-clay. It was secured on obliga-
tions from corporations and landowners cliiefly in the
northern counties ; but it was the hope of those who
became thus liable, that Parliament would relieve
them ; and the prospect of the whole question coming
into the hands of the new Parliament, to which the
English nation looked with so much hope, was also a
prospect full of stirring hope to the Scots.
Early in the sittings there was a singular incident.
On the 8th of October the king desired that the treaty
should be transferred to York. The reasons given
were merely the " unhealthfulness " of the town of
Eipon, and for " expediting " the treaty. The Scots
suspected that there were other reasons. The king's
army was at York, with Strafford at its head. They
said : We cannot " conceave " or foresee " Avhat danger
may be apprehended in our going to York, and suffer-
ing ourselves and others who may be joined with us
into the hands of an army commanded by the Lieu-
tenant of Ireland, against whom, as a chief incendiary,
according to our demands, which are the subject of the
treaty itself, we intend to insist, as is expressed in our
remonstrance and declarator ; who hath in the Parlia-
ment of Ireland proceeded against us as traitors and
rebels — the best titles his lordship in his common talk
is pleased to honour us with, whose commission is to
subdue and destroy us, and who by all means and at
all occasions presseth the breaking up of all treaties of
peace, as fearing to be excluded in the end." ^
When the matters of the pay of the army and the
pacification were adjusted, another adjournment was
proposed : it was to London, whither the English
' Bruce's Notes, 26.
124 CHARLES I.
lords had to go to attend the new Parliament. No
proposal could have been more apt to the views and
fortunes of the Scots, and it was gladly accepted.
By this adjournment the destinies of tlie Scots na-
tion were virtually thrown into the great game which
was to be played over the whole empire. For some
years, although a few incidents of the contest were
peculiar to Scotland, the history of its policy and aims
has to be looked on from the centre of a greater area,
comprehending the three kingdoms, as they were for
some time, and the Commonwealth, as the whole after-
wards became. The duties of the historian of Scot-
land proper are thus in some measure for a time
superseded, and fall on those who undertake the his-
tory of the great civil war.
CHAPTER LXXIII.
Cijarles E.
ADJOURNMENT OF THE TREATY TO LONDON SCOTS COMMIS-
SIONERS THERE THEIR POPULARITY THE LONG PARLIAMENT
FALL OF STRAFFORD AND LAUD CONTESTS IN THE NORTH
MONRO IN ABERDEEN ARGYLe's BANDS IN THE WEST
RAVAGE THE NORTHERN LOWLANDS — THE GREAT PARLIAMENT
OF 164I THE king's PRESENCE — CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
COMMITTEE OF ESTATES — MONTROSE AND ARGYLL THE
INCIDENT AND THE RECRIMINATIONS MONTROSe's CHANGE
NEWS OF THE IRISH OUTBREAK THE SUSPICIONS AGAINST
THE KING THE USE OF THE GREAT SEAL OF SCOTLAND
THE SCOTS ARMY IN IRELAND UNDER LESLIE AND MONRO
THE MASSACRE THE RUMOURS AND TERRORS IN SCOTLAND
THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT MONTROSE'S SCHEME
GATHERS A HIGHLAND ARMY ARGYLE AT INVERLOCHY
BATTLES OF TIBBERMUIR AND KILSYTH HIS FORCE SCAT-
TERED BY LESLIE AT PHILIPHAUGH.
The Scots commissioners were one of the chief cen-
tres round which gathered the mighty excitement with
which London was then seething. AVhen they had
severally taken up their abodes, mostly in the neigh-
bourhood of Covent Garden, the city of London de-
sired the honour of receiving them as guests. A
house was assigned to them so close to the Church of
St Anthony, or St Antholin, as it is popularly termed,
that there was a passage communicating between the
126 CHARLES I.
church and the house. Henderson, Blair, and Baillie
gave their ministrations in that church with zeal and
patience, and were repaid by popular admiration, as
Clarendon says : " To hear those sermons there was
so great a conflux and resort — by the citizens out of
humour and faction, by others of all qualities out
of curiosity, and by some that they might the better
justify the contempt they had of them — that from the
first appearance of day in the morning on every Sun-
day to the shutting in of the light the church was
never empty. They, especially the women, who had
the happiness to get into the church in the morning
(they who could not hang upon or about the windows
without to be auditors or spectators) keeping their
places till the afternoon's exercise was finished." ^
Coming as the assured allies of the Long Parliament,
they were at once to witness the downfall of their great-
est enemies. The blow fell first on Strafford. He " came
but on Monday to town late ; on Tuesday rested ; on
Wednesday came to Parliament, but ere night he was
caged. Intolerable pride and opjDression cries to
heaven for a vengeance. The Lower House closed
their doors ; the Speaker keeped the keys till his
accusation was completed." The Ayrshire minister,
whose fortune it was to see so much of history, tells
how Strafford came forth_ into custody through the
crowd " all gazing, no man capping to him, before
whom that morning the greatest of England would
have stood dis-covered." ^ The temptation is strong to
follow the same pen in picturesque description of the
impeachment ; but it is a passage that belongs to a
wider history, and must be forborne.
' History, i. 190 ; ed. 1843, p. 76. " Baillie's Letters, i. 272.
THE COVENANTERS IN LONDON, 1640-41. 127
Some of the offences charged against Strafford were
founded on the relations of England with Scotland ;
but it would seem that these were inserted rather to
interest and propitiate the Scots commissioners than
really to give weight to the impeachment. They are
slight and rather incoherent, balancing ill with the
desperate designs of tyranny and ambition, at the root
of the other charges. He had called the Scots " rebels"
and "traitors." He said .their demands justified war.
He was ready to lead an Irish force against them.
Then, what seems scarcely in the same tenor, as
lieutenant-general in the north, he " did not provide
for the defence of the town of Newcastle as he ought
to have done, but suffered the same to be lost, that so he
might the more incense the English against the Scots;"
and then, in another turn of inconsistency, it was said
he forced his subordinate Conway to fight the Scots at
Newburn with a force insufiicient for resistance, " out
of a malicious desire to engage the kingdoms of Eng-
land and Scotland in a national and bloody war."
The managers showed their sense of the weakness of
the Scots items in the charge by combining them in
the prosecution with some of the heavier articles, an
arrangement against which the accused protested.^
It was encouraging and exciting, no doubt, to see
one whose spirit was so inimical to theirs, and who
would have crushed them if he could, hunted down
before their eyes ; but Laud was the proper vic-
tim to offer up to the Scots commissioners. Baillie
speedily found " Episcopacy itself beginning to be
cried down and a covenant to be cried up, and the
Liturgy to be scorned. The town of London and a
' state Trials, iii. 1,397-1400, 1440-42.
128 CHARLES I.
world of men minds to present a petition, which I have
seen, for the abolition of bishops, deans, and all their
appm^tenances. It is thought good to delay it till the
Parliament have pulled down Canterbury and some
prime bishops, which they mind to do so soon as the
king has a little digested the bitterness of his lieuten-
ant's censure. Huge things are here in working — the
mighty hand of God be about this great work ! We
hope this shall be the joyful harvest of the tears that
these many years have been sown in these kingdoms.
All here are weary of bishops. This day a committee
of ten noblemen and three of the most innocent
bishops — Carlisle, Salisbury, Winchester — are ap-
pointed to cognosce by what means our pacification
was broken, and who advised the king, when he had
no money, to enter in war without consent of his
State. We hope all shall go avcU above our hopes.
I hope they will not neglect me. Prayer is our best
help ; for albeit all things goes on here above our
expectation, yet how soon, if God would but wink,
might the devil and his manifold instruments here
watching turn our hopes in fear ! " ^
But in the midst of these separate triumphs the
commissioners did not neglect their treaty, and the
large pecuniary interests depending on it. It was
contested on both sides with a harassing obstinacy,
which it would be tedious to follow step by step. It
came to a conclusion on the 7th of August 1641. The
principal provisions of the treaty were, that the king
was to admit as Acts of Parliament those of the Estates
who sat in 1640 Avithout the sanction of royalty.
The "incendiaries," or "those Avho had been the
' Letters, i. 274.
THE TREATY CONCLUDED, 1641. 129
authors and causes of the late and present combus-
tions and troubles," were in each nation to be punished
by Parliament — a demand accepted by the king, with
the explanation that "his majesty believeth he hath
none such about him." All libels against the king's
"loyal and dutiful subjects of Scotland" were to be
suppressed. When the Scots army came to be dis-
banded, the fortresses of Berwick and Carlisle were to
be reduced to their old condition. Not least import-
ant was " the brotherly assistance " to be given by
England to the Scots for their sufferings and services ;
this was fixed at £300,000.^ The armies were then
disbanded ; and when this process was completed, the
city of London held solemn rejoicings for deliverance
from the war that had impended.
There comes now one of those incoherent turns in
the tenor of the Court policy which make it so unsa-
tisfactory a task to endeavour to find in it a natural
unity of sequence, one political condition preceding
another, as external cause precedes external event.
The king, when the harassing business of the Long
Parliament had thickened round him, was to visit
Scotland and hold a Parliament there. He was
not to go as the offended monarch, to take stern ac-
count of those whom he had been charging as trait-
orous and disobedient subjects; but in a spirit of
geniality and loving-kindness, especially towards those
who had most grievously offended him.
Some secondary passages in the struggle had occur-
red within Scotland, even at the time when its larger
results were looked to in the question which the Scots
1 See Report of the Treaty brought up to the Scots Estates ; Act. Pari.,
V. 337 et seq.
VOL. VII. I
I30 CHARLES I.
were to try in England. The strength of the ruhng
party was materially reduced by the removal of a large
army into England. It was naturally in the north-
east that symptoms of restlessness first appeared ; and
there the Committee of Estates, with prompt energy,
determined to use what force they could command, to
aid the Earl Marischal, and other supporters of the
Covenant, who were by themselves in a minority. In
May 1640 a body of about a thousand men marched
into Aberdeen under the command of General Monro.
He, like Leslie, had been trained in the great European
war ; but he was a man of inferior grade and nature,
and brought with him a touch of the rapacity and
cruelty that had grown up in the thirty years' teach-
ing. He weeded the district of able-bodied Malignants
by impressing them and sending them to join the
army in England. In a similar policy he removed all
things that might be turned to warlike purpose — not
only arms, but tools adapted to sapping and mining.
The garrulous town -clerk renders with deplorable
minuteness the various items of exaction to which
his unfortunate city was again subjected.^ Monro
left behind him, as a memorial of his visit, one of
those " woden mares " which had been invented by
^ The Baxters and brewsters to have in readiness "12,000 weight of
good bisket-bread, together with 1000 gallons of ale and beer." The
commander desired that the citizens, " in testimony of their hon accord
with the Soldatista that has come so far a march for their safeties from
the invasion of foreign enemies, and the slavery they or their posterity
may be lirought under, they may be pleased, out of their generosity ac-
customed, and present thankfulness to the Soldatista for keeping good
order and eschewing of plundering, to provide for them 1200 pair of
shoes, together with 3000 ells of harden ticking or sail canvas, for making
of tents to save the Soldatista from great inundation of rains accustomed
to fall out nnder this northern climate." — Spalding's Memorials, i. 275 .
CONTESTS IN THE NORTH, 1640-41. 131
the ingenuity of the German marauders as an in-
strument of torture at once simple and effective.
Monro having paid visits of the same character to
the country districts afflicted with Malignancy, re-
moved his force. A very small body stationed in per-
manence, with casual visits from auxiliaries, might now
keep the troublesome district of the north-east in due
order; but the soldiers themselves were sufferers by the
general poverty they had created.^ If the army sent
to England was honourably distinguished for piety
and decorum, the Government had now come down to
the dregs of their available forces. Of the perform-
ances of the Covenanting troops occasionally posted in
Aberdeen, we hear from the town-clerk of " daily de-
boshing " and " drinking," " night-walking, combating,
swearing, and bringing sundry honest women-servants
to great misery." It was the hard fate of these unfor-
tunates, that after they had become the victims of the
profligacy of the Covenanting soldiery, they came under
the rigid discipline of the Covenanting clergy for the
expiation of their frailties.^
In other parts of the country the Malignants were
^ So the Lord Sinclair, coming with a party of five hundred, " his
allowances was spent, and the soldiers put to their shifts. Aberdeen
would grant them no quarters, since the Colonel Master of Forbes's
regiment was already quartered there. Whereupon ilk soldier began
to deal and do for himself. Some came over to the old town, where they
got nothing but hunger and cauld. Others spread through the country
here and there about the town, specially to Papists' lands, plundering
their food, botli horse-meat and man's meat, where they could get it." —
Ibid., p. 352.
^ " Sixty-five of this honest sisterhood were delated before the Church
courts ; twelve of them, after being paraded through the streets by the
hangman, were banished from the burgh. Several were imprisoned in a
loathsome vault, while others more fortunate found safety in flight." —
Book of Bon Accord, 68.
132 CHARLES I.
cliastised by a rod of a different kind. The prospect
I if an invasion by an army of the wild Irish, sent Ijy
Strafford, gave occasion for guarding the west coast.
It fell to the two chief potentates of the district,
Eglinton and Argyle, to command the troops embodied
for that purpose, who were chiefly, if not entirely,
their own vassals or followers. Of Eglinton, Avho kept
a force ready in the Ayrshire Lowlands, we hear no-
thing ; but Argyle, having a force so conveniently
in hand for which there was no immediate work, took
the occasion to harry the territories of his feudal and
political enemies.
The warrant on which he acted was that savage
writ so aptly named " a commission of fire and sword."
It was issued by the Committee of Estates. It set
forth how " the Earl of Athole and the Lord Ogilvie,
with their accomplices" — the Farquharsons on the
Braes of Mar, and the inhabitants of Badenoch, Loch-
aber, and Eannoch — had " not only proven enemies to
religion, but also had proven unnatural to their coun-
try." Therefore it was meet that Argyle should
" pursue them, and every one of them, in all hostile
manner by fire and sword, aye and until he should
either bring them to their bounden duty, and give
assurance of the same by pledges or otherwise, or else
to the utter subduing and rooting them out of the
country." To this end he raised four thousand men.^
He swept the mountain district lying between his own
territories and the east coast, and came down upon the
half-Highland districts of the Braes of Angus, where
he attacked the Ogilvies in their strongholds. It
appears to have been in this expedition that the Castle
' Act of Ratification and Exoneration in favours of the Earl of
Argyle ; Act. Pari., v. 398.
CONTESTS IN THE NORTH, 1640-41. 133
of Airlie was burned — an incident giving rise to one of
the most stirring of the Scottish ballads of the heroic
type. We have little knowledge of the actual events
of this raid, except from the two northern annalists,
who were no friends of Argyle and his cause.^
In all such affairs there Avas limitless plunder, de-
struction, and bloodshed. The northern authorities,
however, are surely to be doubted when they say that
subordinates desired to spare, but the leader was
obdurate.^ Whatever of the destructive might be
found in the leaders of such Highland hosts, mercy
and moderation were not among the qualities of the
followers. However it came, there must have been
things done on this expedition for which Argyle did not
feel quite at ease, since he sought an indemnity from
that Parliament in which his influence was supreme.
Had his castigation been limited to the Highlanders,
he need have felt no misgiving. " Some Highland
limmers — broken out of Lochaber, Clangregor, out of
Athole, Brae of Mar, and divers other places" — had
^ Gordon's Soots Affairs, iii. 165 ; Spalding's Memorials, i. 291.
^ The following passage deserves attention, as attesting the hitterness
of spirit in the age when one whom many adored as a saint and martyr
could be so spoken of. Argyle had sent one of his followers called
Sergeant Camphell to attack Craigie, the house of Lord John Ogilvie.
The sergeant returned, saying there was a sick woman in tlie house, and
it was not a place of strength, " and therefore he conceived it fell not
within his order to cast it down. Argyle fell in some chaffe with the
sergeant, telling him that it was his part to have obeyed his orders ; and
instantly commanded him back again, and cansed him deface and sijoil
the house. At the sergeant's parting with him, Argyle was remarked
by such as were near for to have turned away from Sergeant Campbell
with some disdain, repeating the Latin political maxim, Abscindantur
qui nos perturhant — a maxim which many thought that he practised
accurately, which he did upon the account of the proverb consequential
thereunto, and which is the reason of the former, which Argyle was re-
marked to have likewise often in his mouth as a choice aphorism, and
well observed by statesmen, Quod mortui non mordent." — Gordon's
Scots Affairs, iii. 166.
134 CHARLES I.
just been at their old work, reiving the lands of loyal
friends of the Covenant ; and whoever could extirpate
them was welcome to the task, and deserved thanks.^
But the Lowland Ogilvies were within the pale of the
law, such as it was. Some of the Acts, from the con-
sequences of which the indemnity protects him, are
broad and strong enough to cover much mischief, thus
— for attacking towers, fortalices, and other houses,
" or demolishing of the same to the ground, or burn-
ing of the same, or putting of fii'e thereintil, or other-
wise sacking and destroying of the same howsoever,
or for putting of whatsoever person or persons to
torture or question, or putting of any person or persons
to death, at any time the said eighteenth day of June
and the said second day of August thereafter ; and
declares these presents to be ane sufficient warrant to
all and whatsoever judges, civil or criminal, for ex-
onering and assoyling the said Earl of Argyle and all
and whatsomever his colonels, captains, commanders,
and whole body of the army, and to their servants,
men, boys, and followers in the said army during the
space foresaid." ^
These affairs were over before the king's arrival.
He had left behind him gloom, discord, and apprehen-
sion. In the vast incongruous city, from the leaders
of the Government down to the London 'prentices,
every face was hostile. He left there the dead body
of that stern, faithful minister of his will, who for
that very stern fidelity was put to death. Was he to
find a bright contrast to all this in Scotland ? On the
surface it was so. Thorough tranquillity seemed to
' Spalding's Memorials, i. 291.
'•^ Acts of Pari, (revised edition), v. 399. The document is long and
elaborately technical.
PARLIAMENT, 1641. 135
reign. The chance of war with England had passed
— the intestine broils were at an end for the time.
In the almost poetic Avords of the Estates, there
was " a quiet, calm, and comfortable peace " over
the land.^
Queen Henrietta told that she had good news from
her husband at last. He " writes me word he has been
very well received in Scotland; and that both the
army and the people have showed a great joy to see
the king — and such that they say was never seen be-
fore : pray God it may continue." ^
He was to meet the Estates, not in the old sordid
building where he had left them nine years ago, but
in the great new hall worthy to receive the assembled
powers of a great nation. There was to be none of
the frowning by the king, and muttered grumbling of
the Estates, which had announced the coming storm in
that last Parliament. All swept onwards with a cur-
rent as of unanimity and harmony. But in reality
these bright aspects were due to the utter isolation
and helplessness of the poor king. The Estates car-
ried all before them with a force so irresistible that,-
while driven before them, he appeared to lead them.
There was throughout all their transactions an ex-
uberant expression of loyalty and worship. Every
one of those statutes which he would have resisted
had there been any hope in resistance, began with
the words " our sovereign lord," the part performed
by the Estates modestly following as subordinate and
supplementary. Things done which it must have
cost him unutterable bitterness to witness in his
helplessness, are what " his majesty was graciously
1 Acts of Pari., v. 341.
^ The queen to Sir Edward Nicholas ; Evelyn's Memoirs, v. 4,
136 CHARLES I.
pleased" to do upon the "humble remonstrance" or
" humble supplication " of the Estates.
The farce of co-operation and harmonious action
was played throughout by all the actors with great
success. The king, in his speech from the throne,
expressed his regret for the unlucky differences, now
happily at an end, by which the land had been dis-
tracted. " The end," he said, " of my coming is
shortly this — to perfect whatsoever I have promised,
and withal to quiet those distractions which have
and may fall out amongst you : and this I mind not
superficially, but fully and cheerfully to do ; for I
assure you that I can do nothing with more cheerful-
ness than to give my people content and general
satisfaction." Biu^leigh, the president, in name of the
House, " made a pretty speech to his majesty of thanks
for all the former demonstrations of his goodness ; " and
Argyle followed with "a short and pithy harangue,
comparing this kingdom to a ship tossed in a tempest-
uous sea these years bypast ; and seeing his majesty
had, like a skilful pilot, in the times of most danger,
stirred her through so many rocks and shoals to safe
anchor, he did humbly entreat his majesty that now
he would not leave her — since that for her safety
he had given way to cast off some of the naughtiest
baggage to lighten her — but be graciously pleased to
settle her in her secure station and harbour again. "-^
In the British empire of the present day, when there
comes a telling majority in the House of Commons
against ministers, there is an inversion of the political
conditions. There was now a like phenomenon in
Scotland, but of a more convulsive character. The
' Balfour's Annals, iii. 42.
PARLIAMENT, 1641. 137
men who were to come into power had not merely
voted against his majesty's advisers, but had been at
war with his army. Leslie was created Earl of Leven,
and largely endowed. The Earl of Argyle became
Marquess. Loudon, recently released from the Tower,
was made Chancellor. The Court of Session was
recast, to admit friends of the Covenant, with John-
ston of Warriston among them ; and generally the
men intrusted with any fragment of political power
were selected from those who were counted safe men
by the party which had now been for three years
supreme in Scotland.
Bacon, who admired " the excellent brevity " of the
old Scots Acts, did not live to see the work of this Par-
liament. Even the prolific legislation of our present
sessions, which cause so much ridicule and grumbling,
is not only anticipated but exceeded, if we take the
number of Acts passed, and the variety of matters
disposed of by them. The session began on the
1 3th of May and ended on the 7th of November ;
but even had it lasted a whole year, there might
have been a good account for every day, since the
last Act is the three hundred and sixty-fifth in num-
ber. It must not be supposed that each one of these
was a piece of legislation like a modern Act of Parlia-
ment. There were among them inquiries into criminal
charges or rumours, adjustments of title or precedence,
of privileges, of social usages, and the like. It wo\ild be
difficult, indeed, to name any class of public business
not to be found in the records of that Parliament. It
seemed, indeed, as if the Estates were jealous or afraid
of any institution of the State acting separately and
in its own place. The business was done, no doubt.
13S CHARLES I.
by tlie officers of the Crown ; but it had to be doue in
the presence of tlie States, and to be completed by
their vote.
In England much of this work would be called a
direct usurpation of the prerogative of the Crown
and the functions of the established courts of justice.
In Scotland it could not be so simply and distinctly
characterised. The Scots Estates had always claimed
the right of supremacy, not only in legislation, but in
the judicial and executive departments. When, in a
country with a mixed government, the jJublic business
enlarges with increased wealth and civilisation, the
additions made to such business will fall into the
hands of that element in the government which is
the strongest. Many of the powers appropriated by
this Parliament had been exercised by the Crown at
least since the Union of 1603 ; but it is not so clear
that they were the exclusive possession of the Crown
in earlier days. The Crown, tampering with the selec-
tion and powers of committees, had made the Lords
of the Articles supreme, and had almost achieved the
appointment of them. All the business of the Estates
was transacted by them ; and it was coming to the
point, that when they were appointed, the Estates at
large had nothing further to do but to meet once, and
either pass or reject the measures brought to maturity
by the Lords of the Articles. The Estates at their pre-
vious session took the opportunity of recasting the con-
stitution of this powerful committee. Each Estate was
to choose its own representative on the Articles, and the
^\4lole body were only to do such work as was assigned
to them by the Estates at large.^ The profuse busi-
1 Acts of Pari., v. 278.
PARLIAMENT, 1641. 139
ness transacted in the Parliament of 1641 seems to
have been worked through open committees — that is
to say, certain groups of memloers were named as
responsible for bringing the business to maturity ; but
any other members might attend their meetings, either
to keep a watch on what they did or to offer sugges-
tions. There was a committee to "revise all articles"
presented during the session, but merely that those
chosen from each Estate "may give account thereof
to their own body." ^ An Act of " pacification and
oblivion " was passed, declaring, in a style not usual
in Acts of Parliament, that " such things as have fallen
forth in these tumultuous times, while laws were
silent, whether prejudicial to his majesty's honour and
authority, or to the laws and liberties of the Church
and kingdom, or the particular interest of the subject,
which to examine in a strict court of justice might
prove ane hindrance to a perfect peace, might be
buried in perpetual oblivion."^ Criminals and "broken
men " in the Highlands Avere, as usual, excepted from
the indemnity; and it was provided that its benefit
"shall no ways be extended to any of the Scottish
prelates, or to John Earl of Traquair, Sir Robert
Spottiswood, Sir John Hay, and Master Walter Bal-
canquall, cited and pursued as incendiaries betwixt
the kingdoms and betwixt the king and his people. " •'
It may be remembered that Balcanquall's crime was
the literary assistance rendered by him to the king in
the composition of his Declaration. These four, along
with Maxwell, Bishoj) of Eoss, were then undergoing
harassing treatment as "incendiaries."
One of the points which the Estates had determined
1 Acts of Pari., v. 333, 334. = Ibid., 341. ^ Ibid., 342.
I40 CHARLES I.
to carry was the appointment by themselves of all
public officers. The Secret Council and the Court
of Session were recast, the appointments being made
in two separate Acts.^ In a general Act applicable
to Government offices at large, the king's power of
appointment is treated with all reverence ; but at the
same time it is to be exercised in each instance " with
the advice and approbation" of the Estates.^ One
can see under the decorous surface of the Parlia-
mentary proceedings, especially with the aid of a diary
of the sittings kept by the Lord Lyon, that these
concessions were extracted from the king by sheer force
attended by many a bitter pang. He had struggled
for the retention of the Crown patronage when its
removal was first suggested at the treaty of Eipon;
and the words in which he gave his reasons for ac-
quiescence, when the demand was put for the last time,
and was not to be resisted, are a sorry attempt to
express contentment and approval : " His majesty's
answer was, that since by their answer to his doubts
proposed on Monday, they manifestly show to every
one — as well believed by him — that to their knowledge
they woxdd never derogate to anything from his just
power, and that the chief ground of their demand was
upon the just sense they had of his necessary absence
from this country, which otherwise but for the sup-
plying of that want they would forbear to press, —
therefore, not to delay more time, his answer was
briefly that he accepted that paper." ^
If by these Acts the Estates took more power than
they ever had under the separate kings of Scotland,
the national jealousy of English influence must be re-
1 Acts of Pari., \-. 388, .389. ^ Ibid., .354. ' Balfour's Annals, iii. 64.
PARLIAMENT, 1641. 141
membered. Four years had not elapsed since William
Laud, Archbisliop of Canterbury, was the ruler of
Scotland, in so far as to control those large policies in
which the vital interests and aspirations of the people
centred. There were, indeed, members of the Estates
who at that very time were ransacking the public
documents, and discovering evidence of his mis-
chievous tampering with the Scots national affairs —
evidence collected for the completion of the charges
on which the hapless intermeddler was brought to the
block. One sees in the inner life of the history of that
period how closely all that was done in Scotland was
watched from England ; and it is impossible to avoid
the conclusion, that these Acts of the Scots Estates
were in the minds of the commoners of England
when they superseded the regal executive, and ruled
through the authority of Parliament.^
But even the superficial harmony which clothed
this Parliament did not abide with it throughout ;
1 The king's faithful servant, Sir Edward Nicholas, writing to him on
the influence of these affairs on England, says, on 24th September :
"Your majesty may be pleased to procure from the Parliament there
some farther reiteration of their declaration, that what your majesty hath
consented unto concerning the election of officers there may not be drawn
into example to your majesty's prejudice here ; for, if I am not misin-
formed, there will be some attempt to procure the like Act here concern-
ing officers, before the Act of tonnage and poundage will be passed to
your majesty for life." — Evelyn's Correspondence, v. 35. Again, on 5th
October : " It is advertised from Edinburgh that your majesty hath
nominated the Lord Lothian [Loudon] to be Chancellor. Whatsoever
the news be that is come hither amongst the party of the protesters,
they are observed to be here of late very jocund and cheerful ; and it is
conceived to arise from some advertisements out of Scotland, from whose
actions and successes they intend, as I hear, to take a pattern for their
proceedings here at their next meeting." On the margin of this the
king puts the ominous comment : " I believe, before all be done, that
they will not have such great cause of joy."— Ibid., 4L
142 CHARLES I.
and Avlien the Estates separated it was in strife,
and with forebodings of a stormy future. There
had been gathering among the leaders of the Cove-
nanters a suspicion, coloured by a vague fear, that
they had enemies within their own camp. These
pointed at last with precision to Montrose, the Lord
Napier, and Stirling of Keir. All executive steps
by that Parliament were taken not only in his
majesty's name, but through his majesty's proper
officers of State. His Lord Advocate, Sir Thomas
Hope, was on the 24th of July directed to take steps
against the suspected men, and they were committed
to the castle.^ Besides a certain letter written by
Montrose to the king, the offence laid against the
three collectively was ostensibly nothing more than
the furtherance of a document called ' The Cumber-
nauld Band.' This is a short document of general
words and protestations ; and these are all in support
of the Covenant, " which we have so solemnly sworn
and already signed." But this supplemental covenant
referred, as the cause of its existence, to " the particular
and direct practising of a few " as thwarting the cause
of the original Covenant. Something was meant here;
for practical men like the adherents to the Cumber-
nauld Band do not sign and then carefully keep out
of sight empty declarations of sentiment intending to
bear no fruit ; and the Estates applied to the occasion
^ Of necessity a prosecution by tlie king's advocate against persons
charged with conniving treason along vfith his majesty, was something
so novel that it demanded novelty in the formalities. The Estates
embodied their instruction in an " Act and warrant " addressed to the
Lord Advocate, Sir Thomas Nicolson, and the "procurators," or solicitors
chosen for the occasion, " to draw up the said summons, and to insist in
consulting and pleading in the said process and hail proceedings thereof
to the final end of the same." — Acts of Pari, (reschinded), v. 316.
THE CUMBERNAULD BAND, 1641. 143
tlie rule adopted by the Tables, that none of the
adherents of the Covenant should make separate com-
binations with each other. Baillie saw so much
perilous matter in the affair that he was constrained
to call it " the damnable band." At the time there
was no getting beyond mere suspicion, but we now
know that Montrose had gone over to the king's
party. It was said that he had gone to the king at
that time when the king desired a personal meeting
with fourteen Scots leaders, and that his Covenanting
virtue had yielded to the royal smile. It has been
proved that in the autumn or winter of 1639 he was
in correspondence with the king.^ What we have of
it does not contain any offer by Montrose to betray
the cause for which he professed a high enthusiasm,
but at the same time it does not tell or hint that
the writer is incorruptible. And a correspondence
between the head of one party in a war and the leader
in the opposite camp is a phenomenon that does not
exist without an object. Burnet, in one of his morsels
of picturesque gossip, tells us, that before the treaty
of Ripon, when the Scots had despatches to send to the
king's Court at York — and such things were always
vigilantly examined before they were sent away — Sir
Eichard Graham opening one of these packets, a letter
fell from it. Sir James Mercer, at whose feet the letter
fell, in politeness picked it up, and by the glance he got
while restoring it, observed that it was addressed to
the king in the handwriting of Montrose.^ Montrose
was arraigned on a charge of corresponding with the
enemy, but extricated himself cleverly by demanding
1 Napier's Memoirs of the Marquis of Montrose (1856), i. 227, 228.
^ Memoirs of Duke of Hamilton, 179.
144 CHARLES I.
if his accusers were prepared, contrary to all their
announcements of loyalty, to count the king their
enemy.
There is scarcely anything to be gained by attempt-
ing to trace too closely the motives on which a man
has changed sides. He would often find it hard to
discover them himself. There were things in his
career that may have soured his spirit towards his
coadjutors. James Graham, Earl of Montrose, was
twenty-five years old when he let loose his vehement
zeal for the Covenant in 1637. He led with success
the parties sent by the Covenanters to intimidate the
north. His rank, and probably his military capacity,
were sufficient to get him these small commands; and
he had the sagacious Leslie to help him with military
experience. In so serious an affair, however, as the
invasion of England, the Tables wisely decided against
all patrician claims, and would trust their fine army
to no one but a trained and successful soldier. A
young man, ardent and inexperienced, was not the
one to be intrusted with such a command. He saw
his subordinate set over him, and he was not one of
the temper to take any slight with dutiful humility.
Then he was in bad blood with Argyle, and there
were counter-charges between them. Montrose or his
friends charged on Argyle how he had uttered words
importing that kings were of no use, and King Charles
might be deposed — the inference being, that he him-
self would in some way virtually fill the empty throne.
No doubt Argyle was an ambitious man, and inscrut-
able in his projects and policy. It would be hard
to say what visions would in a time of contest and
confusion dawn on him who commanded the largest
THE INCIDENT, 1641. 145
following in Scotland. His territory was almost
identically the same with that of the race whose rule
had afterwards spread all over the country. But Scot-
land was not then, or ever during the civil wars, in a
humour to depose the king. In the words of one
who gave well-penned counsel to the king at the time
— believed by some to have been Montrose himself :
"They have no other end but to preserve their reli-
gion in purity and their liberties entire. That they
intend the overthrow of monarchical government is
a calumny. They are capable of no other, for many
and great reasons ; and ere they will admit another
than your majesty, and after you your son and nearest
of posterity, to sit on that throne, many thousands of
them will spend their dearest blood. You are not like
a tree lately planted which oweth the fall to the first
wind. Your ancestors have governed there, without
interruption of race, two thousand years or thereabout,
and taken such deep root as it can never be plucked
up by any but yourselves."^
Driving King Charles from the throne of Scotland
was a plot for which there were no materials, whether
it were devised by Argyle or any other person. The
talk about it seems to have come from Argyle's main-
taining, as others did, that the Acts of the Estates
in their session of 1640 were valid law, without the
royal assent, either by the presence of a commissioner
or the king's acknowledgment of the Acts. There
was enough of reality in the charges and counter-
charges to bring one poor man to his death. A certain
Captain James Stewart bore witness to the uttering of
the treasonable words by Argyle, and afterwards re-
1 Napier's Memorials of Montrose and his Time, i. 268.
VOL. VII. K
146 CHARLES I.
tracted his testimony. On the fact that he had made
the false charge, he Avas brought to trial for " leasing-
makino-," convicted, and executed. The law for this
cruel sentence was the same that had been stretched
for the conviction of Lord Balmerinoch, one of the first
aggressions of the prerogative by the ministers of King
Charles. Its character was now subject to a cross-
testing, since the powers of the king's prerogative had
fallen into the hands of those who were the king's
opponents. The leasing - making of the old Acts
Avas in spreading rumours that might cause discord
between the king and his subjects ; and it might
either be in circulating false charges against the king,
or in bringing to him false charges against any of his
subjects ; — this was the shape in which the charge
visited Stewart.
The execution of Stewart would have passed as the
necessary sacrifice of an insignificant person Avho had
brought on his fate by excess of zeal, and probably
the excitement about the counter-accusation would soon
have Avorn itself out, but for an auxiliary incident.
This came when, one day in October, all Edinburgh
Avas awakened to lively excitement by the rumour
that there Avas a plot for either kidnapping or murder-
ing Hamilton, Argyle, and Hamilton's brother the
Lord Lanark ; and that they had all fled for personal
safety. There Avas a Parliamentary investigation into
the matter, but all that it has left for inquirers in the
present day is chaotic contradiction and confusion.
It is one of the investigations which, for some reason
or other, Avas either A^TCcked or so steered as to reach
no conclusion. The fragmentary notices of the debates
on this aff'air, which received both in Parliament and
THE INCIDENT, 1641. 147
history the name of "the Incident" are incoherent,
and at the same time temptingly suggestive.
Taking up the matter in meeting after meeting of
the whole House, the Estates seem to have lost all
hold on order and the forms of business — a fate likely
to befall a representative assembly which had just
recast itself, and adopted new powers and methods
of transacting business. The king seems to have been
carried olf in the torrent of debate ; and we find him
in strange attitudes — at one time demanding things
which appear not to be conceded to him ; at another
pleading his innocence, as if he were arraigned on
suspicion before some popular tribunal. On one point
there is a clear debate between two opposites ; but
though clear, it is in so shallow a part of the whole
affair as to afford no valuable revelation. This is on
the question whether the investigation that must be
made should be undertaken by the whole House, or
referred to a committee sitting with closed doors. The
king at once emphatically spoke for open inquiry by
the whole House. ^ As the discussion went on he
continued passionately to demand an inquiry by the
1 See Balfour's Annals, iii. 94 et seq. " A Relation of the Incident,"
Hardwicke's State Papers, ii. 299. Napier Memorials, i. 245 et seq.
' The discussion brought out this curious dialogue : —
" Sir Thomas Hope said : ' In such a business the most secret way
was the best way; and yet both ways were legal, and the Parliament
had it in their power which of the two ways, either public or private, to
do it — but for secret and exact trial the private way was rmdoubtedly
the best way.'
" His majesty answered : ' If men were so charitable as not to believe
false rumours, Sir Thomas, I would be of your mind ; but however the
matter go, I must see myself get fair play.' He added that he protested
that if it came to a committee, that neither his honour nor these inter-
ested could have right, Nam aliquid semper adherehit." — Balfour's
Annals, iii. 107.
148 CHARLES I.
whole House ; he said " he behoved still to urge
that which he would not delay to any of his subjects,
Avhich was a public, exact, and speedy trial." ^ The
expression was an apt one, for it is visible through all
the confused debate that the king felt himself to
be virtually on his trial. The Chancellor had visited
the fugitives. He said "he had humbly on his
knees begged his majesty's leave to go to them. He
said that he had been with them, and they humbly
besought each member of the House to rest assured
that they would sacrifice their lives and fortunes for
his majesty's honour and the peace of the country.
"His majesty said. By God! the Parliament and
they too behoved to clear his honour."^
Then, in another irritable outburst, " his majesty
said that if it had not been published at first, but
they had come and demanded justice, then he should
have accorded to a private way. But, as my lord
duke had said, rather or it be not tried, he should
wish — if there were a private way of hell, he said —
with reverence he spoke it — let it be used. But
if they would sliow him that the private way was
freer of scandal than the public, he would then be of
their mind." ^
On another point there was a difference of opiuion.
It was moved that the fugitives should be requested
to return to their places in Parliament, "since the
House had seen that they had very good reason to
absent themselves for a time for avoiding of tumult."
" His majesty answered that he wished they were
here, and he hoped they would return ; but he would
never assent that the House should make any such
1 BalfoiU''s Annals, iii. 108. - Ibid., 112. ' Ibid., 115.
THE INCIDENT, 164I. 149
order, and that for divers reasons best known to him-
self, which he should be loath to express in public."
On both points the king was overruled.
Hence the resolution carried was that the inquiry
be made by a committee.
From the brief abrupt notes that have come down
to us, one cannot decide whether the Estates had good
reason against an open inquiry at the beginning, nor
can we see exactly to Avhat point the evidence taken
by their committee tended.^
We trace the committee's inquiries, however, to one
distinct point, where they stopped and put a powerful
pressure on the king. Through all-becoming terms of
reverence and loyalty for his majesty, in which the
Covenanting politicians might have become perfect by
practice, what they virtually say is — You must show
us that last letter you had from Montrose, or abide
the consec[uences of refusal. The letter was produced.
There was a passage in this letter to the effect " that
he would particularly acquaint his majesty with a
business which not only did concern his honour in a
high degree, but the standing and falling of his crown
likewise." ^ The committee required that Montrose
himself should explain these words. He referred to
some previous explanation which has not been seen,
and he " further declared that thereby he neither did
intend, neither could or would he wrong any particular
1 See notes of the "Depositions;" Balfour, ii. 121 et seq. They are
mere memoranda. Baillie gives an account of the examination still
more indistinct, as he could only give it from rumour. He begins
by saying: "At once there broke out ane noise of one of the most
wicked plots that has been heard of, that put us all for some days
in a mighty fear." — Letters, i .391.
= Balfour's Annals, iii. 132.
I50 CHARLES I.
person quhatsomever." " This being read," as the
Lord Lyou informs us, " under Montrose's hand to the
House, it did not give them satisfaction." Nor, indeed,
did anything else in this inquiry ; for Avhen they had
got distinct testimony " anent the apprehending the
Marquis and Argyle, and sending them to the king's
ship or else stabbing them," yet all becomes clouded
with doubts and contradictions, and it is too late now to
attempt to clear up what was uncertain to the commit-
tee.^ If we could content ourselves with Clarendon's
account, it would enlighten us with a startling and ter-
rible clearness: "From the time that Argyle declared
himself against the king, wliich was immediately
after the first pacification, Montrose appeared with
less vigour for the Covenant ; and had, by underhand
and secret insinuations, made proffer of his services to
the king. But now, after his majesty's arrival in Scot-
land, by the introduction of Mr William Murray of the
bedchamber, he came privately to the king, and in-
formed him of many particulars from the beginning of
the rebellion, and that the Marquis of Hamilton was
no less faulty and false towards his majesty than
Argyle ; and offered to make proof of all in the Parlia-
ment, but rather desired to kill them both, which he
frankly undertook to do. But the king, abhorring that
expedient, though for his own security, advised that
the proofs might be prepared for the Parliament."^
It has l)een souo-ht to discredit this statement of
^b
^ Balfonr's Annals, iii. 130 etseq.
' Edition 1826, ii. 17. Ed. 1843, 119. Clarendon himself wrote some
things which the politic decorum of the Clarendon Press would not
permit it to print. The words "to kill them both" are among the
suppressed passages restored in the edition of 1826. The words super-
seding these in the old edition were, " to have them botli made away."
THE INCIDENT, 1641. 151
Clarendon's by a plea of alibi, since Montrose was
under restraint during the king's visit to Scotland ;
but when great people are involved in deep plots,
such and much greater obstacles have to be overcome.
That Clarendon did not tell the story casually or
negligently is clear from the context, which shows
that it was a pretext for a measure of precaution in
England. There was a committee from the English
Houses in attendance on the king in Scotland, who
sent " a dark and perplexed account " of the Incident
to their friends in England. Next morniuo- " Mr
Hyde " — that is, the historian himself — " walking in
Westminster Hall with the Earl of Holland and the
Earl of Essex, both the earls seemed wonderfully con-
cerned at it, and to believe that other men were in
danger of the like assaults." Hyde made light of the
matter, so far as they in England were concerned ; but
on the letter from the commissioners being read to the
Commons, they passed a resolution to apply to Lord
Essex, as commander of the forces south of the Trent,
for a guard to protect the members of both Houses.^
One more item of intelligence, before passing from this
mystery, is the statement of Lanark, one of the three
fugitives. Colonel Hume came to him, and said " he
was informed there was a plot that same night to cut
the throats both of Argyle, my brother, and myself.
The manner of the doing of it was discovered to him
by one Captain Stewart, who should have been an
actor in it, and should have been done in the king's
withdrawing - chamber, where we three should have
been called in, as to speak with his majesty about some
Parliament business ; and that immediately two lords
1 Clarendon, edition 1826, ii. 17.
152 CHARLES I.
should have entered at a door which answers from the
garden with some two hundred or three hundred men,
where they should either have killed us or carried us
aboard a ship of his majesty's which then lay in the
road."^ With these imperfect lights resting on it,
the Incident must be left behind. It might not have
demanded the interest it has obtained but for its
unfortunate resemblance to other events peculiar as
features in British history to that reign — such as the
call for the attendance of the fourteen Scottish states-
men which they were afraid to obey, the attempt on
Hull, the panic of the city of London from the army
plot, and the attempt to seize the five members.^ In
all of these the perplexity of the historian who meddles
with their perilous confusions is a faint reflection of
that gloom and mystery, attended by solid terror, fall-
ing on those who stood near to the influence of such
events. For whatever may have been the amount of the
real danger, it is certain that a heavy cloud of terror,
fed by many rumours, hung over Edinburgh while the
Estates were dealing with the Incident. The Parlia-
ment was to be invaded — the castle to be regarri-
soned — obnoxious members of the Parliament and the
Assemblies tried by military tribunals — Borderers and
Highlanders were to be brought into the city, and
at any hour it might be at the mercy of the ten
thousand Irish placed under Tyrone.
But the concluding scenes of the inquiry into the
' Hardwicke's State Papers, ii. 301.
- Perliap.s by united industry and genius a " monogram " on the Inci-
dent might be written, like Mr Forster's book on tlie five members. It
gives two volumes octavo to two days' work ; but the track of inquiry
is followed with so much skill and picturesque minuteness as to create a
wonderful interest.
THE IRISH REBELLION, 1641. 153
Incident were overshadowed by another and far more
awful mystery. Scotland was that division of the
empire which it least concerned ; yet it comes up at
this point, because the king, whose name was com-
promised in it, heard of it while sojourning in Scot-
land, and addressed the Scots Estates about it before
he met the Parliament of England. His words were
thus noted down : —
"His majesty said that he was to begin at this time
with a business of great importance, and whether it was
of more or less importance as yet he could not tell, —
only, two or three good and faithful subjects had writ-
ten to him. Only amongst others he took out a letter
from Lord Chichester, which he commanded the clerk
to read to the House, showing the Irish had leapen out
in Ireland in open rebellion, and that many of the
Papists there had joined to them, taken some forts, as
that of Dungannon, seized one magazine of his, and
taken the Lord ShefSeld prisoner. He admitted that
he thought good to advertise the House of this, that if
it proved but a small revolt, then he hoped there was
little need of any supply from this ; but if it proved a
great one, he did put no question but they that were
his own would have an especial care he were not
wronged — for it was best principiis obstare." At his
desire the Estates selected a committee of nine — three
from each — " to advise the best course for the present
to be taken in this business." ^
Such were the first words in which the king publicly
dealt with that terrible event, the outbreak and mas-
sacre in Ireland. In the matter of mere bloodshed,
this tragedy has left a broader stain on history than the
1 Balfour's Annals, iii. 120.
154 CHARLES I.
Sicilian Vespers or even the night of St Bartholomew.
It had more likeness to what we hear of the destroying
march of Attila the Hun, than to anything in modern
European history. Though the king was by some
believed to be guilty in the matter, it was not for the
actual outbreak and the murders, but for separate acts
which gave opportunity for them. Indeed, the very
horrors of the scene, and the utter disbelief that the
king could have authorised them, has disturbed and
perplexed the secondary inquiry, how far he was
guilty of acts which gave occasion to the outbreak.
To understand the gravity of any such imputatioL,
we must look at an unpleasant peculiarity in the so-
cial condition of the times. The European system
of diplomacy, and the law of nations, including the
courtesies of peace and war, are a relic of the Eomau
empire which it has ever been difficult to carry beyond
the bounds of civilised Europe. It was a rule by
which men abstained from striking when they could
strike, seeing there was no superior power to control
them ; and Oriental communities could not understand
how this could be. In this part of Europe the Celt
was excluded from these privileges of the law of peace
and war. Like the Roman slave, justice and mercy
might in some measure be claimed for him by some
other person who had an interest in him, but he could
claim nothing for himself The regular clans, whose
chiefs gave substantial security for the good behaviour
of their followers, became thus entitled, while that
good behaviour lasted, to some consideration. But the
" broken Hielandmen " might be hunted and extirpated
like wolves. The Irish Celtic population was too large
to be so systematically dealt with by such vicarious
THE IRISH REBELLION, 1641. 155
responsibility ; but, on the other hand, the Saxon
population was so small that it was generally glad to
protect itself within the Pale. It was not so much
that the native races were denounced by law, as that
there was no law for them. We learn their treatment
in that statute which warns Englishmen to shave the
upper lip, otherwise they run the risk of being treated
like the Irish.
If any vindication of such a policy were worth ten-
dering, it was that the Irish themselves were cruel
and treacherous, and neither severity nor kindness
would bring them to respect the courtesies of nations.
Whether it were the converse of this, and that the
treatment of the Irish by their invaders made them
what they were, or that both depravities aggravated
each other by action and counter-action, are questions
which it is fortunately unnecessary here to solve. It
is, however, a scandal to civilisation, that the treach-
eries and cruelties caused by such conditions have in
various parts of the world been more numerous and
more conspicuously committed by the civilised man
than by the savage. There is a simple reason for this —
the savage is not trusted by his neighbours of any
kind. The civilised man keeps faith with his fellow,
and becomes trusted. Hence character gives him op-
portunities which the other has not. A higher civil,
isation has now been reached — that which keeps faith
even with the treacherous. We had not learned this
in the days of Clive, and it has taken all the powerful
schooling of our acquisition and retention of our great
Indian empire to teach it to our statesmen. Sir
James Turner, a soldier of fortune, well seasoned to
hardness and ferocity in the Thirty Years' War, yet
IS6 CHARLES I.
carried away from that ordeal enough of human feel-
ing to shudder at the work in which he was expected
to bear a hand in Ireland. " The wild Irish," he says,
" did not only massacre all whom they could over-
master, but burnt towns, villages, castles, churches,
and all habitable houses, endeavouring to reduce, as
far as their power could reach, all to a confused chaos."
His first experience on the other side was in a skir-
mish with some rebels in the "woods of Kilwarninsf,"
" who, after a short dispute, fled ; those who were
taken got but bad quarter, being all shot dead." The
next feat was the siege of Newry, rendered " with a
very ill-made accord, or a very ill-kept one ; for the
next day most of them, with many merchants and
tradesmen of the town who had not been in the castle,
were carried to the bridge and butchered to death
— some by shooting, some by hanging, and some by
drowning — without any legal process." And on such
scenes the Eitter of the Thirty Years' War soliloquises :
" This was too much used by both English and Scots
all along in that war — a thing inhuman and disavow-
able, for the cruelty of one enemy cannot excuse the
inhumanity of another. And herein also their revenge
overmastered their discretion, which should have
taught them to save the lives of those they took, that
the rebels might do the like to their prisoners." ^
Taking the simple fact, that the Celts, both of Scotland
and England, were excluded from the courtesies of
civilised warfare, and that as they did not receive, so
they did not grant quarter, their occasional appear-
ances in the contests of the time were attended by
sinister suspicions.
■■ Sir James Turner's Memoirs, 20.
THE IRISH REBELLION, 1641. 157
Employing the Celtic races in civilised warfare was
employing a force not expected to concede the cour-
tesies of war to the enemy against whom they were
let loose. Their hostility was not that of pugnacious
enemies met in battle— it was, the hatred of one race
to another ; and the object was not victory but ex-
tirpation. To them the infant and the aged mother
were objects of hate and hostility as much as the
armed soldier. Hence it was a reproach to any
civilised ruler to have used such a force — a reproach
like that of employing Indians in the American war,
the object of one of Chatham's famous philippics. In
the present struggle both sides came under this re-
proach. We have seen that the Highlanders taken by
Arg}de to Dunse Law were an object of much unea-
siness ; but they were only twelve hundred or so in
an army exceeding twenty thousand, and hence might
be kept in order. Many indignant reproaches were
heaped on him when he swej)t the country with his
army of four thousand ; but it was a palliation of the
act, that only to a small extent did his devastations
touch the Lowland districts.
On the other hand. King Charles had assembled an
army of nine thousand of the wild Irish for the in-
vasion of Scotland. They were odious, of course, as
Papists ; but they were dreaded for reasons which
could not have extended to German or French troops
of the same religion. When there was no longer an
excuse for its retention, the king had shown great
reluctance to disband this army. There were projects
for giving the use of it to the King of Spain, and
these were treated as mere devices for keeping an
armed force of Irish Papists in existence for use when
158 CHARLES I.
desired; — why otherwise should the King of Britain, to
help the power of Spain, persist in an act that must
be olfensive to his own people 1 At the time of the
Incident this force was no doubt disbanded ; but their
arms were all stored ready for use in Dublin Castle,
and it was believed in Scotland that they might be
made available on the shortest notice.
It were well if this were all, but it brings us to the
entrance of a darker mystery. On the 4th of No-
vember 1641, Sir Phelim O'Neil, the leader of the
rebellion, issued a proclamation, announcing : "To all
Catholics of the Roman party, both English and Irish,
within the kingdom of Ireland, we wish all happiness,
freedom of conscience, and victory over the English
heretics, that have so long time tyrannised over our
bodies, and usurped by extortion our estates." In
this proclamation he said he acted under a commission
and instructions from the king, referring to " divers
great and heinous affronts that the English Protest-
ants, especially the Parliament there, have published
against his royal person and prerogative, and also
aorainst our Catholic friends within the kingdom of
England."
What professes to be the commission has been
preserved. It begins : " Charles," &c., " to all Catholic
subjects within our kingdom of Ireland, greeting.
Know ye that we, for the safeguard and preservation
of our person, have been forced to make our abode
and residence in our kingdom of Scotland for a long
season." Then referring to the outrages by the Eng-
lish Parliament, it gives authority " to use all politic
ways and means possibly to possess yourselves, for
our use and safety, of all forts, castles, and places
THE IRISH REBELLION, 1641. 159
of strength and defence within the said kingdom,
except the places, persons, and estates of our loyal
and loving subjects the Scots; and also to arrest and
seize the goods, estates, and persons of all the English
Protestants within the said kingdom to our use."^
By some writers this commission has been cast
aside as a forgery so obviously inconsistent with the
surrounding conditions that its rejection requires no
support from criticism. But this is a matter open to
difference of opinion ; and any one conversant with
the documents of the time could point to papers of
undoubted authenticity, issued by the king, of a nature
more inconsistent and surprising than this commission.^
Clarendon and others say that the great seal of Eng-
land, taken from another writ, was appended to this.^
1 Rushworth, iv. 40L
^ " The commission itself, for the grounds and language of it, is very
suitable to other despatches and writings under his majesty's name,
expressing much bitterness against the Parliament, and jealousy of the
diminution of his prerogative, which was always his great fear." —
Mystery of Iniquity, 38.
^ Clarendon says : " They not only declared, and with great skill and
industry published throughout the kingdom, that they took arms for the
king and the defence of his royal prerogative against the Puritanical
Parliament of England, which they said invaded it in many parts, and
that what they did was by his majesty's approbation and authority. And
to gain credit to that fiction they produced and showed a commission to
which they had fastened an impression of the great seal, which they
had taken off some grant or patent which had regularly and legally
passed the seal ; and so it was not difficult to persuade weak and inex-
perienced persons to believe that it was a true seal and real commission
from the king." — Rushworth, iv. 403. The author of the History of the
Irish Rebellion (1680) says: "One Plunket having taken an old broad
seal from an obsolete patent of Earnham Abbey, and fixed it to a forged
commission, it served to seduce tlie vulgar into an opinion of their
loyalty." — P. 29, 30. When it reached Hume's day the shape of the story
was : " Sir Phelim O'Neil having found a royal patent in Lord Caulfield'a
house, whom he had murdered, tore off the seal, and affixed it to a com-
mission which he had forged for himself" — Chap. Iv. This is founded on
an account of what Ker, Dean of Ardagh, professed in the year 1681, to
l6o CHARLES I.
But O'Ncil's proclamation calls it a " commission
under the great seal of Scotland." The passage
already cited from it refers to the king as abiding
in Scotland when it was issued : and the concluding
o
words of the commission are, — " Witness ourself at
Edinburgh, the first of October, in the seventeenth
year of our reign." It has been said of the copy of
the document as given by Rushworth, that in describ-
ing the assumption of power by the English Parlia-
ment, it anticipates political conditions which did not
exist until after its date ; but in the king's way of
stating the affronts put on him, he, on other occasions
as on this, exaggerated what had been done, so as to
give the picture a greater likeness of what was to be
done.-^
When we find the document thus treated as an
evident fabrication, there arises an obvious question
• — If there was a forgery for the purpose of creating
a temporary delusion, why was it not in the name
of the English Government, and under the great seal
of England ? As a warrant of sovereignty, the great
seal of Scotland was nothing in Ireland. If it was
give of the trial of O'Neil : " The said Sir Phelim confessed that when
he surprised the Castle of Charlemont and the Lord Caulfield, that he
ordered the said Mr Harrison and another gentleman, whose name I do
not now remember, to cut off the king's broad seal from a patent of the
said Lords they then found in Charlemont, and to affix it to a commis-
sion, which he, tlie said Sir Plielim, had ordered to be drawn up." —
Nalson, ii. 529. The said Sir Phelim was fortunate in getting his order
executed by one intimately acquainted with the condition of official
business at that time botli in England and in Scotland. Isaac d'Israeli
contents himself with saying in a note : " Sir Phelim O'Neale, the head
of these insurgents, it was afterwards discovered, had torn oif the great
seal, and affixed it to a pretended commission." — Commentaries, iv. 396.
' See this articulately shown in Brodie's British Empire, ii. 380,
edit. 1866.
THE IRISH REBELLION, 1641. 161
that only an impression of tlie great seal of Scotland
was available, and that was considered better than no
seal, the accident, when connected with what has yet
to be told, is one of the strangest that ever happened.
The anthor of a pamphlet which was jjublished two
years later, and obtained great notoriety, gave cur-
rency to the following rumour : —
" It is said that this commission was signed with
the broad seal of that kingdom, being not then settled
in the hands of any officer who could be answerable
for the use of it, but during the vacancy of the Chan-
cellor's place intrusted Avith the Marquess Hamilton,
and by him with one Mr John Hamilton, the scribe
of the cross-petitioners in Scotland, and some time
under the care of Master Endymion Porter, a very fit
opportunity for such a clandestine transaction." ^
By a coincidence which, if there was no foul play,
must be called unfortunate, it is known that on the
1st of October, which is the date on the commission,
the great seal of Scotland happened to be in a state
of transition. It was doubtful who Avas responsible on
that day for its custody and its use — it might be said
to be amissing. Archbishop Spottiswood continued
to be nominally Chancellor — at least no one had been
appointed to succeed him, although he was excom-
municated and a fugitive. The great seal had been
committed to the charge of Hamilton. On the 30th
day of September Loudon was made Chancellor by a
joint Act of the king and the Estates under the new
arrangement. Though thus appointed to his office on
1 The Mystery of Iniquity yet working in tlie Kingdoms of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, for the Destruction of Religion truly Protestant,
discovered, 1643— attributed to Edward Bowles— p. 37, 38.
VOL. VII. L
l62 CHARLES I.
the 30th of September, the great seal was not put
into his custody until the 2d of October. On that
day, under an order from the Estates, he, " for obedi-
ence of the said command, produced the said great
seal in presence of the king and Parliament." The
order of the Estates shows at the same time that the
author of the ' JM3'stery of Iniquity ' was acquainted
with the minor arrangements about the custody of
the seal. He mentions " one Mr John Hamilton ; "
and the Act for the production of the seal sets forth
that it had been used by the Marquess of Hamilton,
" and his underkeeper, Mr John Hamilton, advocate." ■'■
The two c[uestions — first, whether the rebels had a
commission under the great seal of Scotland ; and next,
if they had, whether the king sent it to them — might
perhaps reward the labours of one of these archseolo-
gists whose taste and qualifications turn in the direc-
tion of close minute inquiry. The questions, after all,
b
' Act. Pari., V. 366, 367. When the author of the ' Mystery of Iniquity '
spoke of Endymion Porter as a man likely to play tricks with a great
seal, his suspicions have something of a prophetic character, unless he
happened to be acquainted with a secret transaction of the same year aa
the publication of his jiamphlet (1643), which was not revealed until
the Restoration. By that transaction there was to be a full toleration of
the Roman Catholics, a measure that in later times, and freely granted,
would have been entitled to all applause. The price, however, was to
be — assistance against the Parliament from an Irish army of twenty
thousand men. The negotiator was the Lord Glamorgan. When apply-
ing through Clarendon for Court favour at the Restoration, he gave this
account of his warrant for the transaction ; —
" My instructions for this purpose, and my power to treat and con-
clude thereupon, were signed by the king under his pocket-signet, with
blanks for me to put in the name of Pope or prince, to the end the king
might have a starting-hole to deny the having given me such commis-
sions, if excepted against by his own subjects ; leaving me, aa it were,
at stake, who for his majesty's sake was willing to undergo it, trusting
to his word alone.
" In like manner did I not stick upon having this commission enrolled
THE IRISH REBELLION, 1641. 163
are not of wide importance. Tlie king is not charged
with the carnage that followed ; and if it be that he
secretly asked the Irish Papists to assist him against
his Puritan and Presbyterian assailants, the imputa-
tion would make no serious addition to the weight of
perverseness that depresses his political reputation.
The elements of some horrible crisis were all prepared
in Ireland — the political work of centuries had accu-
mulated them, and an accident would give them life.
But to have been the author of that accident — to have
been even accused of it, if he were innocent — must
have been a calamity sufficient to add many drops of
bitterness to the heart of the most unfortun'ate of men.
He was not a man of blood. His conscience was
quick and active — too active, indeed, in its own
peculiar direction, for the peace either of himself or
others. Domestic affection was strong in him. Even
that form of it which created so much wrath against
or assented to by his Council, nor indeed the seal to he put unto it in
an ordinary manner, but as Mr Endymion Porter and I could perform
it, with rollers and no screw-press." — Letter from Glamorgan, after he
had become Marquess of Worcester, to Clarendon, June 11, 1660 ; Clar-
endon's State Papers, ii. 201-203.
The object of the letter is to acquaint Clarendon " with one chief key
where^dth to open the secret passages " between the late king and the
marquess. It will be observed that he, a performer in the curious me-
chanical feat described by him, was the author of that ' Century of
Inventions ' who has often been credited with the invention of the steam-
engine. If it is a fair conclusion that such a commission under the great
seal of Scotland was sent to Ireland, it is easy to find who carried it over.
The author of the ' Mystery of Iniquity ' says the Lord Dillon of Coste-
lough went to Scotland with the queen's letters to the king. In the month
of October he "went out of Scotland from his majesty into Ireland,
bringing his majesty's letters, which he obtained by mediation of the
queen, to be presently sworn a Privy Councillor of Ireland" (Rushworth,
V. 349). He lay under heavy suspicion of connivance in the rebellion;
and venturing into England, he was imprisoned by the Parliament on
the charge, which, however, was never proved, that he had been sent as
an agent " by the rebels of Ireland to the king" (Clarendon, 353).
164 CHARLES I.
him — his devotion and entire loyalty towards his un-
popular wife — told of a nature to which acts of cruelty
and carnage must have been repugnant.
If there was some sunshine when the Scots Parlia-
ment opened in May, there was gloom enough in
November when it closed. The business at the end
was hurried over to let the kino- return to his English
Parliament, with the new and terrible business that
had fallen on the hands of both. Before he left Scot-
land he conferred the distinctions already referred to.
The Estates had determined to assemble once at least
in every period of three years, and never to dissolve
without fixing the period for reassembling. At their
last meeting, on the 7th of November, " because this
present Parliament is this day, by the assistance of
God Almighty and his majesty's great wisdom, to he
brought to ane happy conclusion," the next was ap-
pointed to meet on the first Tuesday of the month of
June, in the year 1644.
The Scots Estates made an offer about Ireland,
which in words was prompt and vigorous. They
would immediately send, out of the materials of the
fine army which had just been disbanded, a force of
ten thousand men, with three thousand stand of arms.
In the view of many of the English statesmen of the
day the offer was far too good. Scotland was, in the
division of parties elsewhere, so influential and power-
ful, that nothing seemed too great to be achieved by
her ; and with ten thousand well - trained men in
Ireland, Scotland would have more command there
than England ever had — it would be a direct trans-
ference of the great Dependency. The project was
not abandoned for these considerations. It was but
THE IRISH REBELLION, 1641. 165
languidly supported, however, from England, and only
in part fulfilled. Leslie, with Monro as his lieutenant,
landed in all about four thousand men at Carrickfergus.
Again the antithesis of the two countries is repeated
— Ireland in greater chaos than ever, though with an
unusual unanimity in cruelty and destructiveness; the
Scots force moving in the centre of all in its own
separate distinctness, an army still more orderly and
exact in drill than the Highlanders of fifty years
earlier. One serious doubt disturbed them, — for whom
were they fighting 1 Was it to king or Parliament
that they were to look for their pay ? They sought a
solution of the difficulty in reliance on their own com-
pact action, and so held the towns and fortified places
taken by them as provisionally their own. One of
their body describes them as taking example from
their own Covenant : " The officers of this our Scots
army in Ireland, finding themselves ill paid, and,
which was worse, not knowing in the time of the civil
Avar who should be their paymasters, and reflecting
on the successful issue of the National Covenant of
Scotland, bethought themselves of making one also.
But they were wise enough to give it another name,
and therefore christened it a ' Mutual Assurance';
whereby upon the matter they made themselves
independent of any, except those who would be their
actual and real paymasters, with whom, for anything
I know, they met not the whole time of the war."^
They would take no general orders but from home ;
and so when Ormond, according to the same parti-
cipator in their lot, " signified by a trumpet to us
the cessation he had, by his majesty's appointment,
1 Turner's Memoirs, 24.
l66 CHARLES I.
concluded with tlie Irish for a year, and required
Monro in the king's name to observe it," " he re-
fused to accept it, because he had no order for it from
his masters of Scotland."^ Leslie, the commander,
found, as we shall see, other work to do, and he left
his charge in the hands of General Monro. To him
fell the chief command of the English as well as the
Scotch troops in Ireland, and in 1643 he was in
command of an army ten thousand strong.^
The two divisions of Britain were too much occu-
pied— each about itself, and both about each other — ■
to think much of unhappy Ireland. A committee from
the English Parliament had accompanied the king to
Scotland, for the avowed object of assisting him as
a council, but the real object of transacting their own
business with their friends in Scotland. Certain Scots
commissioners at the same time attended the English
Parliament, so that there was an official apparatus for
close intercommunication. A General Assembly con-
tinued to meet annually in Scotland as a matter of
routine. Its business now had little interest except
to those immediately concerned. The Assembly of
1640 took up its testimony against private associa-
tions of Christians for religious or ecclesiastical pur-
jjoses, a practice out of the prevalence of which the
Assemblies seemed to fear the groAvth of the Indepen-
dent or Congregational system. They saw the growth
of this system in England Avith much alarm, and lost
no opportunity of denouncing it. The Presbyterian
' Turner's Memoirs, 29.
2 For an account of particulars of the services of Monro's army in
Ireland, and its progress as far southward " as Killarney woods," see a
paper in tlie 'Ulster Journal of Archaeology ' on the " Proceedings of the
Scotch and English Force in the North of Ireland in 1642," viii. 77.
CO-OPERATION WITH ENGLAND, 1641-43. 167
party in England gave them a good occasion for
speaking to this point, when in the General Assembly
of 1641 "a letter from some ministers in England"
was presented. These ministers were groaning under
the yoke of Episcopacy, which they now had hope
that God of His infinite goodness would remove from
them. But this hope was somewhat shaded by the
growth of sectaries, who maintained that each congre-
gation was its own church government, with right of
excommunication and all other powers of the keys.
They modestly requested the judgment of the Scots
Assembly on this difficulty, saying : " We do earnestly
entreat the same at your hands, and that so much the
rather because we sometimes hear from those of the
aforesaid judgment, that some famous and eminent
brethren even among yourselves do sometimes incline
unto an ap^arobation of that way of government."
The answer of the Assembly was of course an exhorta-
tion to stand fast by the divine right of Presbyterian
government. In acknowledgment of this, the Scots
clergy received at their next Assembly, from their
brethren of England, the comforting assurance : " Our
prayers and endeavours, according to our measure,
have been and shall be for the supplanting and rooting
up whatsoever we find so prejudicial to the establish-
ment of the kingdom of Christ and the peace of our
sovereign. And that this declaration of ourselves may
not leave you unsatisfied, we think it necessary farther
to express that the desire of the most godly and con-
siderable part amongst us is, that the Presbyterian
government, which hath just and evident foundation
both in the Word of God and religious reason, may
-be established amongst us; and that, according to
1 68 CHARLES I.
your intimatiou, we may agree to one confession of
faith, one directory of public worship, one public cate-
chism and form of government — which things, if they
were accomplished, we should much rejoice in our
happy subjection to Christ our Head, and our desired
association with you, our beloved brethren."^
That Assembly meeting of 1642 was honoured by
a message from the Parliament of England calling
attention to their declaration of their case in the
quarrel with the king.
This had gone rapidly onward since his return
from Scotland. The grand remonstrance, the attempt
to seize the five members, the impeachment of the
bishops, the dispute about the militia, had followed
on each other ; and at length, on the 28th of August
1642, the king's standard was raised at Nottingham.
Both parties looked with eager longing at the materials
of the fine army lately disbanded in Scotland. Much
as the governing men in Scotland had lately been
pleased with the docility of their king, they were saga-
cious enough to estimate it at its true value. They
knew that his heart was at war with every Act to
which he had put his hand, and that all would be
reversed when the opportunity came. Indeed he was
known to have said as much to those in his confidence,
l)y whom the secret was not always completely kept.
There came appalling rumours from Ireland. People
had supped full of horrors in the carnage of the rebel-
lion ; and the tale was so horrible that some have
thought in later times that it was a great popular
delusion, and that no more blood was shed by the
Irish rebels than the necessities of war and the mis-
1 Peterkin's Records, 294-96, 329.
CO-OPERATION WITH ENGLAND, 1641-43. 169
mauagement of undrilled combatants may reasonably
account for. However this may be, the Irish massacre,
as it stands in the ordinary histories, was then believed
in Scotland, and believed with some exaggeration.
Before this awful evidence of their bloody spirit had
become known, there was a rumour that nine thousand
of the Avild Irish were coming to sweep Scotland.
After the terrible example had been shown, there was
again a rumour of an invasion from Ireland, and it
was to be on a larger scale. Glamorgan had made
peace between the King of England and the Church
of Eome. The Papists were to be encouraged by the
Court, where they had a good friend in the queen. In
return for the grace extended to them, they were to
send over to Scotland an army of the men who had
done the bloody work of the Irish massacre. Farther,
the Scots were informed by their good friends of the
Parliament of England, that the Lord Antrim, one of
the leaders in the rebellion, had a negotiation in hand
for gaining Monro and his army of ten thousand —
Scotch and English — for the suppression of the Parlia-
mentary party in England.
While the king's party was playing a game of this
kind, the English Parliament was day by day ap-
proaching the perfection that ruled in Scotland, and
reaping golden opinions from the Scots. On the 1 0th
of August 1643, the commission of the Parliament
of England in complimentary fashion addressed the
General Assembly of the Church, claiming credit for
following the footsteps of Scotland which had gone
before : "To give them an account of their earnest
desire to see the same work promoted and perfected
among ourselves, which, though it hath been opposed
IJO CHARLES I.
and retarded by the industrious malice of the Popish,
Prelatical, and Malignant party, yet through God's
goodness it hath so far prevailed as to produce the
removal of the High Commission, the making void the
coercive powers of the prelates and their courts, the
ejection of bishops from the House of Peers, the turn-
ing out of many scandalous ministers ; besides that
they have passed and presented to his majesty divers
bills — viz., for the suppi-ession of innovations; for the
more strict observation of the Lord's Day; against
pluralities and non-residence ; for the punishment of
the scandalous clergy ; for the abolition of Episcoj)acy,
and the calling an Assembly." ^
At this period the Parliamentary party were in a
critical position. They were steadily losing ground
in the war, and defeat and death on the scaffold
looked the leaders in the face. It was the question of
life or death to them to have a good army, and Scot-
land was the place where that commodity was to be
found. Scotland was therefore earnestly and sedu-
lously cultivated. Some thirty years before, the Scots
were a people somewhat indifferent about religious
matters, but late events had thrown them into the
cause of the Covenant with all the ardour and steady
endurance of their nature. The progress made by
England towards their own position was the best mode
of propitiating them ; and this policy was completed
by a bold and brilliant stroke, when England, after the
preliminaries to be told in dealing with the Assembly
of Divines, adopted the Solemn League and Covenant,
and suggested it as a bond of brotherhood for all the
three kingdoms. A more august national compliment
^ Peterkin's Records, 347.
SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, 1643. 171
could not have been paid : it was the two great na-
tions humbly and dutifully following the small com-
munity of chosen people in the path of righteousness.
The Solemn League and Covenant took the essence,
both of its purport and of the terms in which this was
expressed, from the National Covenant of Scotland.
There were many references in the Scottish docu-
ment to Acts of the Estates and the Assembly, which
were of course omitted. But under that omission,
necessary as it was, there lurked a great policy. It
was these references that specially linked the Scottish
Covenant to the Presbyterian form of Church govern-
ment. Otherwise, it was a mere protest against Popery,
and an obligation to support the Eeformed faith. The
Solemn League and Covenant had nothing as a substi-
tute for these references to bind its adherents to the
Presbyterian polity. The only clause approaching
such an obligation Avas for " the preservation of the
Eeformed religion of the Church of Scotland, in doc-
trine, worship, discipline, and government, against our
common enemies." The promise as to the rest was,
" The reformation of religion in the kingdoms of Eng-
land and Ireland in doctrine, worship, discipline, and
government, according to the Word of God, and the
example of the best Eeformed Churches." ^ The Scots
seemed to have no doubt that this meant their own
example. The homage to the superior sense and
sanctity of Scotland was intoxicating, and both in
Parliament and the Assembly the Solemn League and
Covenant were received with rapture. Statutes were
passed for enforcing subscription throughout all the
three kingdoms to this new testimony.
1 Peterkin's Records, 362.
172 CHARLES I.
On some minor points the English Parliament con-
tinued to gratify the Scots Avith judicious alacrity.
They were zealous against the religious observance of
what they called " Youle," or the ancient heathen
festival of YoU, preserved in England under the guise
of Christmas. Would the Parliament gratify the
commissioners by sitting and working on that day ?
" We prevailed," says Baillie, " with our friends of the
Lower House, to carry it so in Parliament that both
Houses did profane that holy clay by sitting on it to
our joy and some of the Assembly's shame."' ^ But
though, ready to gratify them with any amount of
words, or some small deeds such as this, the Parliament
kept behind all a resolute determination never to
subject themselves to Presbyterian discipline.
The king told them at the time, what was true,
that the Parliamentary party, " what pretence soever
they make of the care of the true Reformed Protestant
religion, are in truth Brownists and Anabaptists, and
other independent sectaries ; and though they seem to
desire an uniformity of Church government with our
kingdom of Scotland, do no more intend, and are as
far from allowing; the Church government established
there, or indeed any Church government whatsoever,
as they are from consenting to the Episcopal."^
' Baillie's Letters, ii. 12L
" The King's Majestie's Declaration to all his loving Subjects of his
Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh, 164.3. There is somewhat of a pathetic
eloquence in the following passage in this paper : "We do conjure all the
good subjects of that our native kingdom, by the long, happy, and unin-
terrupted government of us and our royal progenitors over them — by
the memory of those many large and public blessings they enjoyed under
our dear father — by those ample favours and benefits they have received
from us — by their own solemn National Covenant, and their obliga-
tion of friendship and brotherhood with the kingdom of England, not to
SECOND INVASION OF ENGLAND, 1643. 173
The Estates of Scotland assembled on the 2 2d of
June 1643, to deal with the momentous question now
demanding a decision. It was a meeting by convention
— that is to say, without the warrant or concurrence
of the king, and indeed in this instance against his
counter-order. But this was no longer a critical step
to be deeply pondered — it was a matter almost of in-
difference, and was treated as the restoration of an old
constitutional privilege which in the recent servile
times had been almost forgotten. The Committee
of Estates was reappointed, and the local war com-
mittees resumed their work in the counties. The
leading men and the nation at large had become
accustomed to sudden calls to arms, as soldiers are
when they have been in long practice ; and we
hear nothing, as in the previous marches, of the
rumours and preparations.
When fully determined on, the affair was pursued
with thorough earnestness. To meet the threatening
exigencies of their allies, an army of twenty-one thou-
sand men began its march southward in the depth of
winter, with deep snow on the ground. It was natu-
ral that the force should be again commanded by the
old Earl of Leven ; but it has to be noted, because it
was material to the result, that he was accompanied
by his nephew, David Leslie, a greater soldier than
himself, who assisted him as major-general.
The capture of Newcastle by the Scots in 1641
had made both parties see how important was the
suifer themselves to be misled and corrupted in their affection and duty
to us by the cunning, malice, and industry of these seditious persons
and their adherents, but to look on them as persons who would involve
them in their guilt, and sacrifice the honour, fidelity, and allegiance
of that our native kingdom to their private end and ambition."— P. 8.
174 CHARLES I.
port on which London and many other towns in
southern England depended for fueh The place was
strongly fortified and garrisoned. It was the point
to which the queen was to bring the aid slie might
obtain from abroad in money and troops. The news
Avent about that at one disembarkation there were'
landed there from the Hague, at the queen's direc-
tion, a thousand stand of arms, twenty pieces of
ordnance, and two thousand ^Dounds in money, accom-
panied by eighty experienced officers, " with many
horse for service, waggons, &c." ^
The Parliament issued an ordinance, finding " that
since the beginning of the present troubles, that town
of Newcastle, being possessed by forces raised against
the king and Parliament, hath become and is the prin-
cipal inlet of foreign aid, forces, and ammunition."
As vessels entering the harbour on the profession, real
or pretended, of exporting coal, helped the garrison by
importing provisions and munitions of war, the expor-
tation of coal from Newcastle was prohibited.^ The
Parliament took strong measures artificially to supply
London with coal from other places and with fire-
wood; but while the town remained in the hands of
the Eoyalists the prohibition was a source of extreme
misery — it hence became all the more momentous that
Newcastle should be taken. A special fund was raised
in the city of London for this service, and with some
ingenuity it was aided by a heavy licence duty on the
privilege of bringing coals from Newcastle in exemp-
tion from the prohibition. But the fighting- work was
to be done by the Scots army.
^ "A great Discovery;" Newcastle Reprints, 11.
^ Ordinance ; Newcastle Reprints.
SECOND INVASION OF ENGLAND, 1643. 175
On tlie 19tli of January 1644 Leslie again crossed
the Tweed witli an army rather more than twenty
thousand strong. We are told that the river was so
strongly frozen as to permit a passage on the ice even
for the heavy baggage. When they reached New-
burn, -where they had crossed before, they found
the passage too strongly fortified to be attempted.
They had to march farther up, and on the 28th
crossed at three fords — Ovinghame, Bydwell, and
Altringhame. It was deep wading, and one of the
army says: "The Lord's providence was observable
in that nick of time we passed the river, which for
eight days after would have been impossible for us
to have done, in respect of the swelling of the river
by the melting of the snow." ^
Resting on Sunday, they entered Sunderland on
Monday the 4th. Appearances threatened a battle
there. Sir Charles liucas, with a force estimated at
fourteen thousand, and strong in horse, formed on a
height close by in battle order, and the Scots pre-
pared to close. The armies faced each other for a
whole day. It was not the policy of the Scots to
weaken themselves before besieging Newcastle; and
Lucas, as it seems, thinking it unsafe to attack them,
moved southwards. The retreat tempted the Scots
to harass his rear; but a snowstorm, through which
they could not see their enemy, baffled the attempt,
and the English, after material losses from cold
and storm, sought rest in Durham. The weather
gave material advantage to the Scots, with their hard
northern training. We find them taking a march of
" eighteen Scottish miles when it was a knee - deep
1 Proceedings of the Scottiali Army; Newcastle Reprints, 11.
176 CHARLES I.
snow, and blowing and snowing so vehemently that
the guides could with great difficulty know the way,
and it was enough for the followers to discern the
leaders ; notwithstanding whereof they were very
cheerful all the way ; and after they had been a
little refreshed at night, professed they were willing
to march as far to-morrow." ^
Some small outforts — one of them at Coquet
Island, another at South Shields — were easily taken.
Without a Eoyalist army to support them they could
not stand in the face of the large force brought from
Scotland. The siege of Newcastle, however, was to be
a great trial of strength. The Koyalists of the north
took their families and movable valuables into that
town, as the best hope for safety in the confusion
of the war, and there a critical contest in the great
civil war was to be decided.^
It was an affair of time. The Scots force had been
hastened to the spot rather to blockade the town in the
mean time than to attempt its capture ; for a large
portion of the siege-train had yet to be brought up,
and, in the language coming into use as to operations
^ The Scots Army advanced into England, &c. ; Newcastle Reprints, 12.
' An observer on the spot says : " The Scots lie quartered about
Morpeth, Seaton, Hepham, Ogle Castle, Prude, and those parts about
Newcastle ; and have laid a strong siege about Newcastle also, and lie
close under the very walls. The Malignants are for the most part all
gone into Newcastle when they tirst heard of the Scots." " They do
carry themselves so civilly and orderly that the country do even admire
them, taking not the worth of a penny from any man but what they
pay fully for ; and they are not come unprovided, for every soldier
hath two or three pieces in his pocket ; and there hath thousands come
into them and taken the Covenant, and their army doth exceedingly
increase." Tliese are the notes of a Parliamentary man and a par-
tisan— a certain Colonel Curfet — arriving at the spot on the 4th of
February. He seems to have taken service with Leslie. "A true
Relation of the Scots taking Coquet Island;" Newcastle Reprints.
SIEGE OF NEWCASTLE, 1643-44. 177
on fortified places, tlie besieging general had to " sit
down " before NeAvcastle. Desirous to avoid a storm-
ing, they offered what they considered good terms, and
complained that the enemy trifled with them.^ The
Royalist garrison was indeed under strong temptation
to hold out, as a slight turn in the fortunes of war
might bring a relieving force to the gate. There were,
as we shall see, great things done elsewhere in the
mean time; but October came, and still the situation
at Newcastle was the same. On the 19th the critical
moment had come : " We had been so long expecting
that these men within the town should have pitied
themselves ; all our batteries were ready; so many of
our mines as they had not found out and drowned
were in clanger of their hourly finding out ; the winter
was drawing on, and our soldiers were earnest to have
some end of the business, which made the general,
after so many slightings, to begin this morning to
make breaches, whereof we had three, and four mines.
' " 1. That all officers and soldiers who are desirous to go out of town,
should have liberty to go, with arms, bag, and baggage, to any garrison
not beleaguered, within sixty miles ; and should have a convoy, waggons,
and meat on the way.
" 2. That all strangers, sojourners, or inhabitants, who desired to go
with the soldiers, should have the like liberty and accommodation.
" 3. The town shall enjoy their privileges and jurisdiction conform to
their ancient charters.
" 4. The persons, houses, family, and goods of the citizens and inhabi-
tants should be free and protected from violence.
" 5. They should have their free-trade and commerce, as other towns
reduced to the obedience of the king and Parliament.
" 6. That any of them who desired to go into the country, and live in
their country houses, should have safeguard for their persons, families,
goods, and houses.
" 7. That no free billeting should be imposed on them without their
own consent.
" 8. The army should not enter the town, but only a competent
garrison." — Newcastle Reprints.
VOL. VII. M
178 CHARLES I.
Tlie breaches were made reasonably low before three
of the clock at night. All our mines played very well.
They within the town continued still obstinate. My
Lord Chancellor's regiment and Buccleugh's entered at
a breach at Close Gate. The general of the artillery,
his regiment, and that of Edinburgh, entered at a mine
at the White Tower." In all, eight storming-parties
attacked through mines or breaches, and carried them.^
The fate of the town and its fortifications was thus
decided. The castle held out, and capitulated on the
27th. The decision of the great coal question, just as
winter was beginning to announce his approach, made
the event auspicious to the middle classes and the
poor of England in the south. A Cavalier historian tells
us that " the surrendry proved of great importance to
the city of London, where the poorer sort of people
for the two last years had been almost starved for want
of fuel, coals having risen to the price of four pounds
a chaldron, a price never known before that time."^
While the siege-works or "approaches" moved on,
work had been found elsewhere for the general and
the greater portion of the army. They marched to
Tadcaster in March, and there met the Parliamentary
army under Manchester, Fairfax, and Cromwell. A
Royalist force under the Marcjuess of Newcastle held
York, and the united armies determined to drive them
out. The commander sent a flag to Leven, asking
what his intentions were in having " beleaguered this
1 " A Letter from Newcastle, &o., containing a Relation of the taking
of Newcastle by storm, dated the 19th of October 1G44;" Newcastle Ee-
prints. The places entered by the storming-parties are here enumerated,
and explanations are afforded by the editor for their identification at
the present day.
= Echard, iii. 482.
SIEGE OF NEWCASTLE, 1643-44. 179
city on all sides, made batteries against it, and so near
approached it." The old soldier's answer might have
been taken as a jest if the game had been less serious —
he had brought his forces before the city " with inten-
tion to reduce it to the obedience of king and Parlia-
ment." ^ The investment here was not so complete,
however, as to prevent passage and the strengthening
of the garrison. It was said that Rupert should have
been contented wdth this; but it is questionable whether
the augmented garrison could have stood against the
augmented army before it. However it was, he gave
battle at Long Marston ]\Ioor, about five miles west-
ward of York. On this renowned field there are none
of the marked features which sometimes help so mate-
rially to clear the scope and tenor of a pitched battle
from the confused details of those who have described
it. The necessity of circumstances, not a choice on
either side, forced the armies to fight it out where
they were. To prevent the allies from reaching York,
Rupert had to keep sufficiently near to wheel and meet
his enemy at any point. Within that limit the allies
had their choice of ground, and had any point ofi"ered
advantage, they might have secured it ; but the whole
was a flat plain, on which they descended from a low
ridge of hills to the west. There were thus neither
helps nor impediments, except of the smaller kind, in
which one who was present mentions "furze and
ditches." The only diff'erence between the two posi-
tions was, that Prince Rupert's army was on the open
moor, and the other in cultivated fields. The numbers
seem to have been well balanced — about twenty-three
thousand on each side.
1 Rushworth, v. 624, 625.
l80 CHARLES I.
Prince Eupert headed one of those impetuous
attacks for which he was renowned, and scattered
before him the right of the allied army under Fairfax
and Leven. It was one of those great blows that may
confuse a whole army; but the other half was in very
competent hands — those of Cromwell and David Leslie.
They beat back their opponents, not by a rush, but
a hard steady fight, and were on the enemy's ground
when Eupert returned from a pursuit which he had
carried too far. He found that while he had been away
pursuing the defeated enemy, events behind him had
arranged matters for a second battle, in which each
occupied the ground that earlier in the day had
belonged to the other side. The end was an entire
victory both over those who had been driven back
and those who had pursued as victors. There was
much debate on the question whether it was to Crom-
well or to David Leslie that the merit of the victory
was due; and it came to be said that the English
claimed it for Cromwell and the Independents — the
Scots for David Leslie and the Presbyterians. The
fact material to the position of Scotland at this point
of time is, that certainly the victory would not have
been gained but for the Scots army, and that the posi-
tion taken by Scotland at this critical juncture gave
a tone and influence to the whole of the struggle.^
^ There is more than the usual difficulty in unravelling the details
of this battle, as on the side of the allies there were three commanders—
Leven, Fairfax, and Manchester — and yet the victory is not accredited to
any one of them. As if this did not furnish sufficient element of con-
fusion we have to look to two committees — one from the English and
another from the Soots Parliament — who were joint commanders-in-chief
In the official despatches Leven's signature takes precedence, followed
by Fairfax's and lilauchester's. In the despatch after the battle, David
Leslie's name came in as a joint leader. He seems to have been the
Montrose's campaign, 1644-45. 181
It is now time to turn to a scene of strife nearer
home. It Avas less momentous than the war in Eng-
land ; it left the political conditions, indeed, just as it
found them, and made no other mark on the country
but the miseries attending a rapid succession of small
battles. But these had picturesque peculiarities which
have found for them an interest. It seems to have first
occurred to the queen that the ardour and military
genius of Montrose might be turned to use. To him
it had occurred that a large amount of fighting ma-
terial lay waste in the British dominions. He had
himself seen the Celt at war in Scotland both as an
ally and an enemy. The Irish rebellion had shown
all too well that the race could be effective in one of
the chief ends of warfare — the destructive. To the
formal commander in legitimate warfare, the Celts, as
seen chiefly in the Highlanders, had many and fatal
defects. They had a system of discipline of their
hero of the day, though Cromwell's presence, interpreted through his
subsequent career, has brought him to the front in history. Cromwell
had only the command of three hundred horse (Eushworth, v. 634), and
though he no doubt handled them effectively, the force was scarcely large
enough to give the ruling influence to such a victory. There is so little
said of him in contemporary documents, that his conduct in the battle
has been bandied between contradictory mysteries. By one account he
had to be removed to get a wound dressed, and it was owing to this tem-
porary absence of the ruling spirit that Rupert gained his advantage
(A short critical View of the Political Life of Oliver Cromwell, by a
Gentleman of the Middle Temple, p. 24). In the Memorial of Denzil
HoUis it is maintained that Cromwell left the field in a fright — an ad-
dition to the many instances in which, through the spirit of paradox,
cowardice is attributed to those who by their general conduct have shown
it to be nearly impossible that they could be liable to this frailty. It is
said that in this battle four thousand were killed on the field, but, as
usually befalls the returns of killed in battle, on imperfect information —
merely that " the countrymen who were commanded to bury the corpses
gave out that they interred four thousand one hundred and fifty bodies."
(Rushworth, v. 6:35).
I82 CHARLES I.
own, very lax and precarious, and they would work
in no otlier. They would follow no leaders and obey
no commanders but those whom the accident of birth
had set over them, and the highest military skill was
lost in any attempt to control them. They were in-
veterate plunderers ; and instead of contenting them-
selves with articles small and valuable which they
could carry with them on the march, or with the
price of what they could sell, they would seize any-
thing— furniture or clothing — and scamper home with
it. After a battle they all dispersed to their own
glens, — loaded with plunder if they were successful —
dejected and dispirited if they were not. They were
unsteady in face of a fusilade, and the roar of the
cannon scattered them like a flight of pigeons. Finally,
if they were unsuccessful in their first dash at the
enemy, they gave up the contest and dispersed. On
the other hand, they were all ready for the field, and
trained to fight after their manner. Their rush on
the enemy was terrible. If the method of conducting
a war were to their taste, their patience and endur-
ance were inexhaustible. They were fit for the field
after starvations that ^vould ruin ordinary troops.
They required no commissariat or baggage-train, and
could cross wild ranges of country, and pounce on any
destined spot like their own eagles.
Since the time of Harlaw there had never been so
many of them in the field as to be properly a High-
land army. When the old claims of the Lords of the
Isles to something like royalty died, the chiefs of clans
would not serve under each other. Hence no High-
land army was ever led by a Highlander. It was
to be seen whether such a feat could be accomplished
by a Lowlander. The experiment succeeded. If the
MONTROSE S CAMPAIGN, 1644-45. 183
clansman had liis own immediate chief to give the
word of command, the question, Avho gave authority
to that chief, was beyond the scope of his philosophy.
With such their defects and their qualifications, there
was a prejudice against the employment of such hands
in warfare — a certain discredit rested on the act,
indeed, for reasons already referred to.^ The vindi-
cation for their employment on this occasion would
of course be, that the cause of the Crown being in a
desperate condition, demanded and justified a desper-
ate remedy.
Montrose's scheme was not so wild as at a first
glance it might appear. He did not propose to re-
conquer Scotland to the royal cause with bis High-
landers, even though aided by unlimited drafts on
Ireland. His project was to get Leven's army, of
more than twenty thousand trained and hardy soldiers,
out of England, where they decidedly turned the
balance of war against the king. He was to make
them find the necessity of returning home for the
defence of Scotland. When he first suggested the
plan, it was by Hamilton's advice rejected ; and some
authors on the Cavalier side regretfully say that it
was adopted just when it had become too late.
His commission gave him plenary sovereign powers,
through an ingenious arrangement for avoiding of-
fence to those of rank above his own whom he was
set over. A patent was issued to Prince Eupert of
a novel character, making him Viceroy of Scotland.
Montrose was his lieutenant, who was to do the vice-
roy's work. His intention was to march from Eng-
land with a force sufiiciently strong to make its way
through Scotland, until it was joined by the High-
^ See above, p. 154.
1 84 CHARLES I.
landers and the Irish promised by Antrim. In this
view he desired a detachment from Newcastle's army
in the north to be put at his command. Coming, as
he did, with high authority and designs which must
weaken an army already all too feeble for its own
work, he Avas not a welcome counsellor to the har-
assed commander of the royal army. He got but a
small force — some eight hundred footmen, as it is said,
and three troops of horse. With these he was able to
do no more than harass the south-west of Scotland,
and drive the Covenanters out of the town of Dum-
fries. He thought by personal application to Prince
Eupert, his superior in command, to accomplish his
object. But he joined Eupert on the day after Marston
Moor, not a time propitious to parting with a portion
of his army.^ It became clear that Montrose would
not obtain a force sufficient to carry him to the spot
where he was to find his Irish and Highland army.
This was no doubt irritating and mortifying ; but in
the end it was the foundation of his fame, since it
gave him the opportunity for playing the hero in one
of the most brilliant passages of the romance of war.
He resolved to find his way in disguise to the place
where he would discover his army. He executed this
design very skilfully. As Lieutenant-General of Scot-
land he was ostensibly on his way to the king at Ox-
ford in all suitable pomp. The carriage and the train
kept moving slowly onwards, while he who should
have been the centre of all the pomp was on his way
through Scotland, dressed as a groom, and, to appear-
ance, in attendance upon two gentlemen, Sir William
Eollo and Colonel Sibbald, who virtually were in
' Rush worth, v. 482.
Montrose's campaign, 1644-45. i8S
attendance on him. He thus arrived in safety at
TuUibeltane, in the Highlands of Perthshire, where he
found his kinsman, Graham of Inchbrachie. The ad-
venture appeared for some time to be a dead failure.
The Estates and their committee had organised so
strong a government that neither those Lowlanders
Avho belonged to the Cavalier party, nor the Highlanders
who were delighted to rise against any government
that was strong and orderly, durst move. He heard
at last that Antrim's Irish troops had arrived,- — a per-
centage only of the promised number — some twelve
hundred instead of ten thousand. They were in
imminent danger of extermination by Argyle, when
they received an order from Montrose, as the king's
lieutenant, to march to Blair AthoU. Here he raised
the standard. The " fiery cross " went through the
glens, and with the marvellous celerity peculiar to
Highland gatherings, he was speedily at the head of
some three thousand men. Accident favoured him ;
for his standard was joined by Lord Kilpont, Avith a
body of men who had been assembled for the avowed
purpose of opposing the Irish aggressors. It was
resolved to march on Perth, Montrose Avalking at the
head of his force in a Highland dress.^
When rumours of this formidable movement reached
the citizens of the town and the neighbouring Low-
landers, they gathered in a tumultuous body, placing
Lord Elcho at their head. They marched, if march-
ing it could be called, to a barren plain called Tip-
permuir, some four miles west of Perth. It is said
' His costume is called " coat and trews," or tronsers, a costume not
now associated with the Highlands. In one place, however, Spalding
says " the lieutenant was clad in coat and trews, as the Irishes was
clad," meaning by " Irishes " Highlanders (p. 409).
l86 CHARLES I.
that tliey were more than double the numljer of their
enemies ; but, a mere mob as they were, their numbers
only increased their incapacity to meet an enemy.
On Montrose's side we have the first instance of that
simple tactic by which many Highland victories were
afterwards gained. Those who had pieces discharged
them and threw them down ; then all swept forward
in the great rush that must be destructive either to
their enemies or themselves. In this instance the
rush was successful — the confused mass of people at
once broke and scattered. They were pursued and
slain by their nimble enemies. It is only in the
amount of the slaughter — estimated at two thousand
— that this affair deserves the dignified title of a
battle ; it occurred on Sunday the 1st of September.^
At a distance, however, it sounded emphatically in
giving Montrose possession of Perth. This city was
at that time second only to Edinburgh as a military
position ; it was the capital of a large district, and
in the centre of Scotland. A battle followed by such
an acquisition seemed almost to balance Marston Moor
and the possession of York.
To Montrose, however, the acquisition was only
of importance in the plunder it afforded. He re-
1 Such, when stripped of attempts at military pedantry, appears to
be the purport of the account of " the battle of Tippermoor " given by
Montrose's eulogistic biographer Wishart. It is useless to compare it
with the other accounts, as they are all derived from it. The ground
where the affair occurred is a low upland now covered with a dark fir
plantation. It rises up westward from a farm called Cultmalindy, and
its local name is Lamerkin Muir, Tippermuir being the name of the
parish and a neighbouring small village. Except that it has a full view
of the Grampians, it is an uninteresting battle-field, since.it was not se-
lected according to a tactic on either side, but was the mere spot where
the two bodies of men, going in opposite directions, met each other.
For the local account of this affair see Memorabilia of Perth, 107.
Montrose's campaign, 1644-45. 187
mained but three days in Perth. He had to evade
Argyle, who was approaching with a large force ; and
his Highlanders, as usual, were scattering homewards
with their plunder. From some mysterious quarrel,
Kilpont was murdered in the camp, and his con-
tingent went off in a body. Montrose had few beyond
the worthless Irish, who could not leave him. He
found compensation for his losses, however, in recruits
from the Oa;ilvies and other Cavaliers on the Braes
of Angus. With an army fifteen hundred strong he
resolved to attack Aberdeen. By repeated onslaughts
and continual harassment that ill-fated town had
been subdued to the cause of the Covenant, those
citizens whose stubborn spirits would not conform
finding a home elsewhere. It was sometimes, as a
place of questionable fidelity, garrisoned by large
bodies of the Covenanting forces. At this juncture
it was but slightly protected. The cause, however,
mustered nearly three thousand men, a great portion
of them from the south of Scotland.
Montrose avoided the difiiculty of the Bridge of
Dee by crossing the river ten miles higher up. He
met the Covenanting army to the westward of the
city, between "the Craibstane and the Justice Mills."
They fought for two hours, and then the Covenanting
army fled. " There was little slaughter," says an eye-
witness, " in the fight ; but horrible was the slaughter
in the flight — fleeing back to the town, which was our
townsmen's destruction. Whereas if they jhad fled
and not come near the town, they might have been
in better security." " The lieutenant follows the
chase to Aberdeen, his men hewing and cutting down
aU manner of men they could overtake within the
1 88 CHARLES I.
toMm, upon the streets, or in their lionses, and round
about the town, as our men was fleeing — but mercy
or remeid. Tliese cruel Irishes, seeing a man well
clad, would first tyr [strip] him and save the clothes
unspoiled, then kill the man."'^
Of the scenes occurring when towns are at .the
mercy of lawless captors, history sometimes affords
accounts too grandiloquent for distinctness ; and one
may have a better notion of the reality from the im-
pression made on the town-clerk in his walks abroad :
" The men that they killed they would not suffer to
be buried, but tirred them of their clothes, syne left
their naked bodies lying upon the ground. The wife
durst not cry nor weep at her husband's slaughter
before her eyes, nor the mother for the son, nor
daughter for the father — which if they were heard,
then they were presently slain also." The town was
taken on Friday the 13th of September, and next day
Montrose marched westward with his force, " except
such Irishes as were plundering the town and killing
our men wdiich went not with them." ^ This was an
instance of the spirit which made it a scandal in that
age to employ such instruments in warfare. This was
the third visit paid by Montrose to Aberdeen. In the
two former he had chastised the community until he
brought them into conformity with the Covenant, and
now he made compensation by chastising them for
having yielded to his inflictions.
He wandered through the Gordon country only to
experience a mortifying illustration of the character
of Highland politics. All his efforts to communicate
with the head of the house were bafl^led. Whether it
' Spalding's Memorials, ii. 407. = Ibid., 407, 408.
Montrose's campaign, 1644-45. 189
was that Huntly would not co-operate with the man
who had betrayed him, or that, as some said, he had
hidden himself from his enemies so effectively that
even his friends could not find him, Montrose never
got the use of his name for raising his people, and
therefore appealed to their sense of loyalty in vain.
So nimbly, indeed, did they evade the messengers
sent among them, that the country appeared empty
of men.
The point of wonder in Montrose's operations
henceforth is the apt use he made of the peculiar
qualities of his force in rapid movements from place
to place. For some time in the north he and Argyle
were close to each other, and their contest was like
that of the hawk and the heron — Montrose never
permitted the two to come so close together as to
touch each other unless when he was prepared to
wound. In winter Argyle retired to his own castle
at Inverary. It was a current belief that the passes
into the Argyle country, difficult in summer, were
utterly impracticable in winter. They Avere therefore
carelessly protected, and the lord of the domain was
abiding in indolent security in his castle. Montrose's
stanch follower, Macdonald of Kolkitto, had been
absent raising men in the far north-west, and had
returned with a large reinforcement. Thus strength-
ened, Montrose resolved to try the metal of his High-
landers by a winter raid in the territories of the
dreaded MacCallum Mohr. He was so expeditious
and silent that he all but caught his great enemy in
his lair. Argyle escaped by sea. From December
1644 to February 16 4 .5 the poor people of his country
were scourged and harassed by relentless marauders.
igo CHARLES I.
Then these returned again home with their booty, and
Montrose's policy became that of the fugitive.
Argyle was gathering forces at Inverlochy, under
the shadow of Ben Nevis, in the north-west corner of
his territory. From another side the Lord Seaforth
threatened j\Iontrose with a large body of the Cove-
nanters of the far north. The exigency was one to try
the resources of a military genius, and it was duly
met. He carried his small army, winter as it was, over
those terrible mountains, where travellers sometimes
die of cold in summer, and pounced on Argyle, abiding
in security on the level banks of Loch Linnhe. The
surprise was complete; and Argyle's people, after an
ineffective resistance, fled to the hills. Argyle himself
has been bitterly reproached for betaking himself to
his galley instead of remaining at the head of his
people. The act was stigmatised as cowardice. In
truth, however, a man in Argyle's position had heavy
difficulties to contend with. He had great ability,
and much of this ability was shown in controlling
men ; but it was in civil policy, not in war. He was
not naturally a soldier ; yet in that day there was no
transferring the military command of a clan — nature
had pointed out the leader, and no other could supply
his place. His political conduct was not that of a
coward, and his death was heroic.^
After having kept his small army alive and out of
sight in the northern Highlands for some weeks, we
1 Baillie, when telling how he threw his lot in with the Covenant
party at the Assembly of 1638, when the step was dangerous, says : " It
has been the equity of our cause which has been the only motive to
make that man, in that necessar time, to the extreme hazard of his
head and all he possesses, to encourage us openly by his assistance." —
Letters, i. 1 46.
Montrose's campaign, 1645. 191
find Montrose, in the beginning of April, pouncing
suddenly on the town of Dundee. The outline of the
doings of his little savage army there makes it not
uncharitable to suspect, that had a minute chronicler
like Spalding been present, he might have given even
a drearier picture of pillage and cruelty than the sack
of Aberdeen. The stay, however, here was brief.
The Committee of Estates had thought it necessary to
bring over General William Baillie to oppose Montrose's
career. It will be observed that as yet he had not been
face to face with any commander who was a trained
soldier. A small detachment of rank and file seems
to have been at the same time sent from the army in
England, for we have frequent reference to a thousand
trained soldiers belonging to the army of the Cove-
nant. By the presence of these and of Baillie, and
another old soldier, John Hurry or Urry, Montrose's
nimble motions were guided. They were at the same
time infiuenced by the fluctuations in his own army.
When he had three thousand men in hand, he could
haunt the Covenanting forces in the low country ;
but when he had only a third of that number, he had
to keep the mountains, where he was inaccessible.
He was at one time joined by a body of the Gordons ;
but they disappeared suddenly one day, and neither
the commander nor any other person could discover
why they deserted. In May he found himself in
Morayland with three thousand men, in face of Urry,
who had with him the best troops of the Covenanting
army. Montrose's policy was the defensive ; and he
made a small fortified camp of the village of Auldearn,
in the county of Nairn. Here on the 9th of May he
was vigorously attacked by Urry, who threatened to
192 CHARLES I.
force his left, where Kolkitto commanded. Some
mistake made by a subordinate commander on Urry's
side tempted Montrose to try the aggressive. He
ordered his wliole force to throw themselves on the
enemy, and again the Highland rush was effective in
scattering them.^ Urry cai-ried his l^roken forces to
join Baillie, and both ascended the valley of the Don
in Aberdeenshire, where Montrose appeared to be re-
treating before them. He ascertained, however, that
though the two experienced generals were in the
army, the thousand trained troops were elsewhere,
under the command of the Lord Lindsay. He took
up a strong position near the village of Alford. It
was a low hill westward of the village, forming a
ridge running east and west, and rising towards the
west, where it has a full view of the surrounding
country. The ground whence it rises is now well
cultivated, but it was then a marsh or bog. The
Covenanter generals believed that he was avoiding
battle, and had the temerity to cross the river to
attack him. The two armies were about equal in
foot, neither having more than two thousand ; but
the Covenanters had a considerable superiority in
horse. The fight was an obstinate one, but in the
end the Covenanters were again beaten. Montrose's
^ Spalding says ; " This overthrow was attribute to ane Orowner or
Major Drummond, who wheeled ahout unskilfully through his own foot,
and brake their ranks, whereby they were all slain by the enemy ; and
for the whilk, by council of war holden thereafter at Inverness, he was
shot, standing on his feet, but not at ane post. There was reckoned to
be slain here at this bloody battle above two thousand men to Hurry,
and some twenty-four gentlemen hurt to Montrose, and some few Irish
killed — which is miraculous, and only foughten with God's own finger,
as would appear, — so many to be murdered and cut down upon the
ane side, and so few on the other."— Memorials, ii. 474.
Montrose's campaign, 1645. 193
name was now to the Covenanters an object of terror
and exasperation. There was a general feeling that
the faithful must rise throughout the land and sup-
press him. In Fifeshire^an early stronghold of the
Covenanters — the old spirit was rekindled, and burned
vehemently. One army was fast gathering there, and
another among the western Whigs, where the Covenant-
ing spirit was of more recent planting, but had been
of rapid and powerful growth. It was now the policy
of Montrose to strike a decided blow at the existing
army before it was enlarged by the new-comers. He
was in a fitter condition for such a feat than he ever
had been before, since the fame of his two victories
in the northern Lowlands had penetrated far through
the mountains, and brought him reinforcements from
the distant clans of the west of Inverness-shire and
Ross-shire.
The movements of the two forces had now shifted
the theatre of war to the south side of the Forth,
nearly two hundred miles from the scenes of the late
battles. Montrose kept within the range of the
Campsie Hills, where he could at any time secure
himself. Baillie, his antagonist, had the larger force
— six thousand in all, including the valued thousand
who had been thoroughly trained to arms. Whether
it was owing to Baillie's own imprudence, or to the
conceited obstinacy of the Committee of Estates,
who controlled him, the mistake was again made of
supposing that Montrose shunned a battle. For the
purpose of finishing the war before the enemy was
reinforced, he courted a meeting, provided it were at
his own time and place. The valley behind the small
town of Kilsyth, where he waited for his enemy, is
VOL. VII. N
194 CHARLES I.
now a small lake or reservoir for supplying water to
works close l)y. But enough of it is visible to sliow
that it was excellent ground for Highland warfare.
The battle l^egan with some legitimate fighting, in
which the Ogilvies and other Lowland Cavaliers took
part. But the Highland onset was again tried at the
rio-ht time. The human torrent rushed down the brae
with a wild roar or yell, and carried all before it. As
at Tippermuir, there was a long and bloody pursuit.
The slaughter was far beyond any usual proportion to
the number engaged. It was a boast, indeed, of the
Cavaliers, that not one unmounted Covenanter escaped
alive. The defeated general maintained that he was
not responsible for the calamity, that the Committee
of Estates had interfered so with his functions as
a military commander, that he resolved to let them
command in reality, abiding in his place only that he
might do his best under them to save the army from
destruction at a juncture when "the loss of the day
would be the loss of the kingdom."^
It now appeared as if Scotland were regained for
King Charles. The prisons were emptied of the
Cavaliers confined in them, and everywhere the Royal-
ists ruled the day. Montrose and his assistants have
' Baillie's Letters, ii. 421. Argyle, a bad soldier, appears to have
dictated in name of the committee : " My lord marquis asked me "what
was next to be done. I answered the direction should come from his
lordship and those of the committee. My lord demanded what reason
was for that. I answered I found myself so slighted in everything be-
longing to ane commander-in-chief, that for the short time I was to stay
with them I should absolutely submit to their direction and follow it."
So far as the loss of the battle was caused by mismanagement, he attri-
buted it to " our removing from that gTound whereon we stood first em-
battled, being so near an enemy who had sundry advantages of us." —
Ibid., 420-23.
Montrose's campaign, 1645. 195
been praised for their moderation in not exhausting
the proper harvest of victory and subjugation. But
they were on a perilous elevation. All the strong
places were still in the hands of their enemies. The
Covenanters had lent to England, and might recall, an
army worth six times as much as any one which Mon-
trose had defeated. He had only shown, what might
have been presumed, that Highlanders trained to
fighting, though in a bad school, made better fighters
than Lowlanders not trained to war at all. He had
the merit certainly of bringing into effect this peculiar
force, hidden until his day ; but he had not yet
measured swords with a professional soldier at the
head of eff'ective troops.
To give full effect to Montrose's military strength,
he received that title of Viceroy which had been
given to Prince Rupert, and stood nominally in the
position of absolute ruler of Scotland. The danger
that all might be overturned lay in the south, and
unconsciously he went to meet it. He was very de-
sirous to recruit his army from the Borders, and to
obtain from that country some serviceable horses. To
this end, and that he might be near the friends of the
cause in England, Avhom he was to aid when Scotland
was all settled, he moved southwards. This was not
acceptable to the Highlanders, who had ever a reluc-
tance to trust themselves far from the protection of
their own mountains. It was natural to them to
return with their booty after a victory, especially if
there was no immediate prospect of more fighting.
They therefore went off in considerable bands.
The Scots army was before Hereford when a press-
ing demand for their assistance at home reached them
196 CHARLES I.
from the Committee of Estates. The detachment sent
was entirely cavalry, for the sake of expedition. They
were commanded by David Leslie. They entered
Scotland at Berwick, where the Committee of Estates
and other eminent political persons were living
as refugees from Edinburgh, where the plague then
was rife. Thus Leslie got the best information as to
the condition of the country and the steps he was ex-
pected to take. He moved northward until he reached
Gladsmuir, near Prestonj)ans. He expected here to
find and fight his enemy ; and this is not the only
occasion in history in which we may find a battle
expected as likely to occur on a spot where a battle
does occur in a later chapter of history. There seem
to be certain physical conditions which practical men
recognise as the spots where opposing armies are likely
by the force of events to meet in battle. Here he
learned that Montrose was still on the Border, and he
resolved to wheel round and fall on him by surprise.
On the night of the 12th of September 1645, Mon-
trose set his headquarters in the town of Selkirk,
while his attenuated army was encamped on Philip-
haugh, about two miles to the westward. As the
name haugh imports, the spot was a diluvial flat plain
on the side of a river ; the river was the Ettrick, and
the place a little above its junction with the Tweed.
There was a wood close by called the Harwood, which
was said to protect the army from any surprise from
the west. But in truth no precautions were taken
against a surprise. That was a contingency deemed
beyond the range of possibilities, otherwise Montrose
could never have placed Highland troops on a fiat
plain, knowing, as he must have known, how eminently
Montrose's campaign, 1645. 197
their method of fighting demands the command of the
ground. There was abundant mountain ground hard
by, and the selection must have been made for ease
and convenience, not for defence.^ So imperfect was
Montrose's organisation of scouts, or so perfect Leslie's
organisation for intercepting them, that he was that
night posted within six miles of the doomed army.
Montrose was writing despatches to the king through
the night and into the morning, when he heard firing.
He galloped to his army in time to order a despairing
resistance. Mist favoured the assailants ; and Avhile a
large body of horse charged from the Selkirk side, an-
other band wound round by the spurs of the hills to
attack the enemy from the west. All that Montrose's
generalship could achieve was to retreat with a small
portion of his force. It has been indignantly charged
against the victors, that they put all their prisoners to
death. The charge is likely to be true ; for they were
either Highland or Irish, and it was the custom so
to treat the descendants of the old Scottish race, on
whichever side of the Channel they resided.
Montrose made arduous efforts to reconstruct his
army, but in vain. It had consisted of a class who
eminently require success to keep them in a fitting
state of ardour for the field. He had to abandon all
his efforts and leave the country, when the king put
himself into the hands of the Covenanters. Such was
the career of IMontrose, covering a yeav and twelve
days. Of him it cannot be said that he suffered from
oblivion, like the heroes before Agamemnon. Per-
1 A small obelisk marks the centre of the field. It contains the
following inscription, curious as a piece of peculiar literature : " To the
memory of the Covenanters who fought and fell on the field of Philip-
haugh, and won the battle there, a.d. September 13, 1645."
198 CHARLES I.
haps no military career has ever had a literary com-
memoration so disproportioned to its length and fruit-
fulness. The successive tributes to liis memory were
begun by his chaplain Wishart, who told his career in
Latin for the benefit of the learned world, while it was
translated into the vernacular for home use. It was
his fortune or his fate that his memory, as a chivalrous
hero, was the object of devotion to a party; and the
commander, who was defeated on the only occasion
when he met face to face with another commander of
repute, had to be maintained as high up in the temple
of fame as the greatest warriors in the world's history.
For the literature devoted to such causes there are
many allowances to be made ; and the sj)irit that per-
vades it will meet a kindly appreciation by all who
peruse the latest tributes heaped on the memory of
Montrose by one allied to him in blood, and himself a
chivalrous member of a chivalrous house. The secret
of the interest we all take in such literature, whether
it is on our own side or not, is something akin to
that which we take in the warm unselfish attachments
where, right or wrong, the man stands by his friend.
CHAPTER LXXIV.
CijarUs E
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES CONSTITUTION — RESPONSI-
BILITY TO PARLIAMENT ELEMENTS OF OPPOSITION AND DIS-
PUTE— POLICY OF INSTITUTING THE ASSEMBLY OCCUPATION
FOR THE CLERGY BAILLIE's PICTURE OF THE OPENING FUNC-
TION OF THE scots COMMISSIONERS THEIR INFLUENCE THE
PASSING OF THE COVENANT THE BROWNISTS AND INDEPEN-
DENTS PARLIAMENT AND THE DIVINE RIGHT OF PRESBYTERY
RIGHT OF DISCIPLINE THE DIRECTORY OF WORSHIP THE
VERSION OF THE PSALMS ADOPTION IN SCOTLAND THE
CONFESSION OF FAITH THE CATECHISMS CONTEMPORARY
AFFAIRS IN SCOTLAND EXECUTION OF HADDO AND SPOTTIS-
WOOD THE SCOTS ARMY IN ENGLAND THE KING JOINS IT
CONTROVERSY WITH HENDERSON THE KING GIVEN UP TO
THE PARLIAMENTARY PARTY THE TREATY OF NEWPORT
THE ENGAGEMENT HAMILTON'S MARCH TO PRESTON HIS
DEFEAT — THE MAUCHLINE TESTIMONY THE WHIGAMORES
CROMWELL'S ARRANGEMENT WITH ARGYLE AND THE ESTATES
THE ACT OF CLASSES — EXECUTION OF THE KING, AND
PROCLAMATION OF CHARLES II.
CoNTEMPOEANEOUSLY with these stirring events, much
interest was felt in Scothmcl in the deliberations of a
community of grave and reverend persons assembled
in England. The sayings and doings of the Assembly
of Divines at Westminster deserve a fuller and closer
history than they have yet obtained. There is no in-
tention of supplying the deficiency here, since that
200 CHARLES I.
institution belongs to the whole empire, or if it is to
be told in connection with a part of it, it belongs to
England.^ Some reference to its influence, however,
belongs to Scotland ; for this influence existed long
after its laws and institutions had ceased to be an
element in the constitution of Church and State in
England. Indeed, what the "Westminster Assembly
enjoined is still matter of living practice and discus-
sion through all but a small portion of ecclesiastical
Scotland.
The Assembly was constituted by an ordinance of
the Lords and Commons of England on the 12th of
June 1643. Finding the existing Church government
by bishops and other gxacles to be pernicious, it is re-
solved " that the same shall be taken away, and that
' "We have two books, each containing, at considerable length, a nar-
rative of some of the debates and transactions of the Assembly during
a portion of their long session. The one is, ' Notes of the Debates and
Proceedings of the Assembly of Divines and other Commissioners at
Westminster,' by George Gillespie, a celebrated minister, often referred
to in our narrative. To those not practically engaged in polemics or
Biblical criticism, this is the driest of all reading. It condenses, and
with considerable skill, the purport of long wordy debates, giving their
very essence in hard criticism on the Scriptures in the original Greek
and Hebrew, as lending support to either side in the controversies about
articles of belief and of Church government. The whole is here and
there illuminated by a meteoric contribution from the brilliant scholar-
ship of Selden. It was printed from the original manuscript in 1846, as
part of a collection called ' The Presbyterian's Armoury.'
The other book is the ' Journal of the Assemljly of Divines,' by Dr
John Lightfoot. It makes the thirteenth and last volume of the edition
of his Tvorks printed in 1822-25. This affords us a closer view of the in-
cidents of the debate and the individuality of the speakers than the
other. Thus : —
" Then fell we upon another point or clause — viz., ' It belongeth to
the pastor's office to pray with and for his people.'
" Here Mr Herrick urged that it should be expressed, ' That it is the
pastor's office also to curse upon occasion ;' but this was waived for the
l)resent." — P. 45.
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1643. 201
such a government shall be settled in the Church as
may be most agreeable to God's holy Word, and most
apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church at
home, and nearer agreement with the Church of Scot-
land, and other Eeformed Churches abroad. And for
the better effecting hereof, and for the vindicating and
clearing of the doctrine of the Church of England from
all false calumnies and aspersions, it is thought fit and
necessary to call an Assembly of learned, godly, and
judicious divines, to consult and advise of such matters
and things touching the premises as shall be proposed
to them by both or either of the Houses of Parliament,
and to give their advice and counsel therein to both or
either of the said Houses, when and as often as they
shall be thereunto required."
The members of this Assembly w^ere not left to se-
So when Selden, as was his wont, would upset a whole fabric of debate
by showing that it proceeded on some ignorance of law or of Hebrew : —
" Mr Selden. — ' By the laws of England none can ordain but only a
bishop with some presbyters ' " (then a citation of authorities).
"'And whereas our Covenant swears out the 7-er/imcn ecclesice, this that
we have in hand is not regimen ecclesice; and we have sworn to preserve
the laws of the kingdom, of which this is one.'
" This speech cost a great deal of debate, and had many answers given
it ; and, among other things, Mr Henderson, and the Lord Mackland
[Maitland] after him, took it to heart, and expressed their resentment of
it, that there had been too much boldness with the Covenant."' — P. 121.
On the question of the presence of the people at excommunication,
" Sir Archibald Johnston gave this example, that a murderer in Scot-
land is by law to be executed between sun and sun in an open market-
place, coram populo. Yet this tieth not the people to any interest in
his execution, nor tieth him so to be present — and so is it with this
case."— P. 139.
On 29th January 1644 we have a debate, " with great heat," about the
power of the civil magistrate in matters ecclesiastic, Gillespie fighting
with Nye, when the Lord Maitland stood up and " related the news
of the Scots now being in the kingdom ; that they marched in on that
day that the public thanksgiving was at Christ's Chxrrch, and that on
AVednesday last they were within seven miles of Alnwick."— P. 130.
202 CHARLES I.
lection through any ecclesiastical organisation. They
were named by Parliament. They consisted of ten
Peers and twenty members of the Commons as lay
assessors, and a hundred and twenty-one clergymen.
The constitution of the body was shifted from time to
time, according to the rate of attendance and other in-
cidents ; but Parliament never quitted a firm hold on
its constitution and power. The Prolocutor or presi-
dent, Dr Twiss, was named by Parliament ; and when
difficidties and disputes arose, they were to be referred
to Parliament. By the same authority, certain com-
missioners for Scotland were invited to attend the dis-
cussions. There were from the clergy, Baillie, Hen-
derson, Eutherford, and Gillespie — all men with gifts
that might make them remarkable in any intellectual
arena. Robert Douglas, the reputed grandson of
Queen Mary, was named as a fifth, but he never at-
tended. For the lay elders there was the redoubted
Johnston of Warriston, the most able and zealous of a
group of lay statesmen — they were not in all, perhaps,
above three or four — who were as thorough wai'riors in
the ecclesiastical department of the great struggle as the
clergy themselves. Along with him were Lord Cassilis
and Lord Maitland, in later times more renowned
than illustrious as Duke of Lauderdale. There were
afterwards added Argyle, Balmerinoch, and Loudon,
with Robert Mcldrum and George Winram. These,
with all others there present, were under the control
of the Parliament. In Baillie's slightly indignant
words, " Here no mortal man may enter to see or
hear without ane order in wryte from both Houses of
Parliament ; " ^ and in acknowledging a comforting
' Letters, ii. 107.
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1643. 203
assurance from ecclesiastical sympathisers in Holland,
he says : " As for returning an answer, they have no
power to write one line to any soul but as the Parlia-
ment directs, neither may they importune the Parlia-
ment for warrants to keep foreign correspondence." ^
There can be no doubt that the organising of this As-
sembly was a Avise act. It may be cjuestioned if ever
a large deliberative body acted with the sagacity
that predominated on this and other occasions in the
Long Parliament. The country was all on fire with
religious fervour. The Parliament had grave and mo-
mentous work before it, and it was well, if possible,
that this work should be done without risk of intrusion
by the elements of religious contention. It would be
wise to have all this perilous matter cleared away and
removed into a safe place. The invitation to the various
zealots virtually was : You will be free to open up all
the outlets of talk and discussion ; nay, you shall exer-
cise your powers in all honourable distinction, and with
every facility and appliance for exciting and protract-
ing discussion, provided you take it all to a place apart,
and leave us unmolested to discuss our civil business.
The arrangement was accomplished with a dexter-
ous subordination of the ecclesiastical to the civil au-
thority. The hand of the State was laid on it all with
such firm precision, that no movement for the estab-
lishment of a separate s]Diritual power was practicable ;
and this was done in a shape admitting no ground for
complaint. No power of any existing institution was
usurped. It was a voluntary assembling. None were
bound to attend whose conscience revolted at the
authority assumed by the Parliament — these might
1 Letters, ii. 186.
204 CHARLES I.
remain at home for conscience' sake, and some did so.
Still it was safe to calculate on Churchmen being
influenced by the seductive charms of debate. The
attraction would strengthen day by day as the
wordy war went on, and small scruples would be for-
o'otten. So it Avas ; although a few were able to ab-
stain, the centre of debate aggregated to it enough of
the inflammable material to leave the Parliament in
safety. The members of the Assembly, indeed, held
meeting after meeting with a growing enthusiasm, the
reflection of which may be found in the picturesc[ue
opening scene from the pen of our old friend Baillie.
It will be seen from this description how completely
the order of business in the Assembly was modelled
on the forms of the Enoiish House of Commons — a
system marvellously beautiful and com];)lete, and for
compelling a numerous assembly to act with freedom
and order, beyond all comparison the finest organi-
sation that human genius has accomplished. The
description is the more clear, that it was made by
one who had been trained in another school, and
especially noticed the matters in which the two
difli'ered from each other. He could not but see and
acknowledge the merits of the English system ; yet
we find him longing somewhat for the impetuous
action of his own people, when he says : " They follow
the way of their Parliament. Much of their way is
good, and worthy of our imitation, only their long-
someness is woeful at this time, when their Church
and kingdom lies under a most lamentable anarchy
and confusion."
" The like of this Assembly I did never see, and,
as we hear say, the like was never in England, nor
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1643. 205
anywhere is shortly like to be. They did sit in
Henry the VII. 's Chapel, in the place of the convo-
cation ; but since the weather grew cold, they did go
to Jerusalem Chamber, a fair room in the Abbey of
Westminster, about the bounds of the college forehall,
but wider. At the ane end nearest the door, and
both sides, are stages of seats as in the new Assem-
bly House at Edinburgh; but not so high, for there
will be room but for five or six score. At the
upmost end there is a chair set on a frame, a foot
from the earth, for the Mr Proloqutor, Dr Twisse.
Before it on the ground stands two chairs for the two
Mr Assessors, Dr Burgess and Mr Whyte. Before
these two chairs, through the length of the room,
stands a table, at which sits the two scribes, Mr
Byfield and Mr Roborough. The house is all well
hung, and has a good fire, which is some dainties at
London. Foranent the table, upon the proloqutor's
right hand, there are three or four ranks of forms. On
the lowest we five do sit. Upon the other, at our
backs, the members of Parliament deputed to the
Assembly. On the forms foranent us, on the pro-
loqutor's left hand, going from the upper end of the
house to the chimney, and at the other end of the
house, and backside of the table, till it come about to
our seats, are four or five stages of forms, whereupon
their divines sit as they please, albeit commonly they
keep the same place. From the chimney to the door
there is no seats, but a void for passage. The Lords of
Parliament used to sit on chairs, in that void, about
the fire. We meet every day of the week but Satur-
day. We sit commonly from nine to one or two
afternoon. The proloqutor at the beginning and end
206 CHARLES I.
has a short prayer. The man, as the world knows, is
very learned in the questions he has studied, and very
good, beloved of all, and highly esteemed ; but merely
bookish, and not much, as it seems, acquaint wath con-
ceived prayer, and among the unfittest of all the com-
pany for any action ; so after the prayer he sits mute.
It was the canny convoyanee of these who guides
most matters for their own interest to plant such a
man of purpose in the chair. The one assessor, our
good friend Mr Whyte, has kept in of the gout since
our coming ; the other, Dr Burgess, a very active and
sharp man, supplies, so far as is decent, the proloqu-
tor's place. Ordinarily there will be present above
threescore of their divines. These are divided in three
committees, in ane whereof every man is a member.
No man is excluded who pleases to come to any of
the three. Every committee, as the Parliament gives
order in write to take any purpose to consideration,
takes a portion, and in their afternoon meeting pre-
pares matters for the Assembly, sets down their mind
in distinct propositions, backs their propositions wdth
texts of Scripture. After the prayer, Mr Byfield the
scribe reads the proposition and Scriptures, whereupon
the Assembly debates in a most grave and orderly
way. No man is called up to speak ; but who stands
up of his own accord, he speaks so long as he will
without interruption. If two or three stand uj) at
once, then the divines confusedly call on his name
whom they desire to hear first : on whom the loudest
and most voices call, he speaks. No man speaks to
any but to the proloqutor. They harangue long and
very learnedly. They study the questions well before-
hand, and prepare their speeches ; but withal the men
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1643. 207
are exceeding prompt, and well spoken. I do marvel
at the very accurate and extemporal replies that many
of them usually do make. When upon every propo-
sition by itself, and on every text of Scripture that is
brought to confirm it, every man who will has said his
whole mind, and the replies and duplies and triplies
are heard, then the most part calls, 'To the question.'
Byfield the scribe rises from the table and comes to
the proloqutor's chair, who from the scribe's book
reads the proposition, and says, 'As many as are in
opinion that the question is well stated in the proposi-
tion, let them say I.' When 'I' is heard, he says, 'As
many as think otherwise, say No.' If the difference of
I's and No's be clear, as usually it is, then the question
is ordered by the scribes, and they go on to debate
the first Scripture alleged for proof of the proposition.
If the sound of ' I ' and ' No ' be near equal, then says
the proloqutor, 'As many as say I, stand up.' While
they stand, the scribe and others number them in
their mind; when they sit down, the No's are bidden,
and they likewise are numbered. This way is clear
enough, and saves a great deal of time, which we
spend in reading our catalogue. When a question is
once ordered, there is no more debate of that matter ;
but if a man will vaige, be is quickly taken up by Mr
Assessor, or many others, confusedly crying, 'Speak to
order, to order.' No man contradicts another expressly
by name, but most discreetly speaks to the proloqu-
tor, and at most holds on the general — the reverend
brother, who lately or last spoke, on this hand, on that
side, above, or below." ^
With the Scots the most interesting business of this
1 Letters, &c., ii. 107-109.
2o8 CHARLES I.
Assembly was the Covenant, and it was among the
first to claim attention. AVe have this account of the
sittino- ou the 8th of August 1643 : —
" The Parliament recommended the Covenant to
the Assembly to take into consideration the lawful-
ness of it. The first article of it held us all the day,
for we sat till within night. This clause bred all the
doubting, ' I will endeavour the preservation of the
true Reformed Protestant religion in the Church of
Scotland, in doctrine, discipline, worship, and govern-
ment, according to the Word of God.' It was scrupled
whether the last words, ' according to the Word of
God,' were set for limitation — viz., to preserve it as far
as it was according to the Word, — or for approbation
— viz., as concluding that the Scotch discipline was
undoubtedly according to the Word. Therefore, after
a day's debate almost, it was resolved that this expla-
nation should be annexed to it, 'As far as in my
conscience I shall conceive it to be according to the
Word of God.' This was concluded about five o'clock
afternoon.
" Then fell we upon the second article of it, ' That
without respect of persons, I will endeavour, accord-
ing to my calling, to extirpate Popery, prelacy, heresy,
schism,' &c. ; when Dr Burgess, who had been excep-
tions of all others all the day against the first article,
began again to cavil about this clause, ' Without re-
spect of persons to extirpate Popery ' — it being a very
nice business to know what Popery is, and what is
meant by extirpation, and I know not what — which
gave occasion to others to take the same exceptions,
and so hold long debates ; and it was very clear that
we had parted and gone home unresolved of the matter,
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1643. 209
but at last we brought it to the vote that the words
were fit to stand as they were.
" Tuesday, August 29, Ave fell upon these words,
' prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism,' &c. ; and Dr
Burgess began again to except every one of the words
as doubtful — especially the word 'prelacy' was thought
by others to be too doubtful, therefore the explana-
tion of it was concluded on, ' the government by
archbishops, bishops,' &c. ; and about noon, with much
ado and great retarding, we had finished the second
article, and the Assembly adjourned till afternoon.
" In the afternoon the rest of the Covenant was
despatched with much ado; for Dr Burgess continued
in his captiousness, and retarded as much as possibly
he could. In fine, it was concluded upon and ordered
that the Assembly should on Thursday morning, by
their prolocutor, they attending him to the House of
Commons, huml^ly present their advice to the Parlia-
ment, that in point of conscience the Covenant may
lawfully be taken Avith those explanations which are
foremen tioned." ^
To the Scottish Covenanters the calling of this
Assembly, and the adoption of the Solemn League and
Covenant as revised by it, were rapidly bringing on
the consummation of that great scheme of Divine Pro-
vidence destined to establish the Presbyterian polity
over all mankind. The government of the Church by
a General Assembly, Synods, Presbyteries, and Kirk-
sessions, was the divine form of Church government,
and all others must dissolve before it. Here had
been completed a great step — England and Ireland
had been cleansed of the Popish and prelatic rubbish
1 Journal of the AsseniLly of Divines ; Lightfoot's Works, xiii. 1 1.
VOL. VII. 0
2IO CHARLES I.
left at the Reformation, and were immediately to be
united to Scotland in one Presbyterian community.
The English Presbyterians — a large body with many
learned ministers among them — indulged themselves
in the same conclusion.
The Parliament, however, had other views, and
skilfully prepared for the consummation. There
lurked at that time, in the class of men who made the
Parliament and the influential circles, a disinclination
to reconstruct any strong priesthood. Some were
influenced by religious motives, others by political ;
but their general temper was, that as the keys of St
Peter had been thrown down in the late scuffle, they
were not to be picked up again by the nearest hand.
Accordingly the personal structure of the Assembly
placed within it elements of opposition which had an
appearance of impartiality, but were of course infinitely
provoking to those who demanded supremacy.
The Brownists, Independents, or Congregationalists,
were a large body in England, and had been growing,
even in Scotland, too rapidly for the peace of the Cove-
nanting party. Their principle was, that there should
be no combined system of Church government,
whether prelatic or Presbyterian, but that each Chris-
tian congregation should be a Church in itself It
was a system that seemed to embody the very ab-
stract spirit of toleration, by bringing the power of
ecclesiastical tyi'anny down to absolute zero. So it
seemed in Britain, where the Independents were
driven to the policy of self-defence ; but they became
very sufficient ecclesiastical tyrants on their own
ground in New England, where they dutifully hanged
every man who wore a broad-brimmed hat, or used
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1644-46. 211
the personal pronoun in an antiquated fashion.^
These men were not powerful in organisation for
constructive purposes, for that was not their mission,
or the tenor of the polity sought by them ; but they
were very useful for the purpose for which they had
been placed in the Assembly — the interruption of
the constructive work of others.
The Independents were but a small party in the
Assembly — it might have given alarm to have in-
creased their number. They were there, indeed, just
as Episcopalians and some representatives of peculiar
sects were there — that they might be heard for their
respective causes. They were to be tolerated in
debate, as it is said the present House of Commons
will tolerate any speaker who, however offensive his
opinions may be to the House, represents any con-
siderable body of British subjects, or any important
national interest. Among the Independents, however,
were men whose genius and zeal made them j)owerful
in debate and troublesome in expedients. Five of
the most eminent of these — Nye, Bridge, Boroughs,
' Baillie, mentioning an instance where some preachers of false doc-
trine in New England narrowly escaped death and were sentenced to
slavery, puts the difference aptly enough : " The Independents here,
finding they have not the magistrate so obsequious as in New England,
turns their pens, as you will see, &c., to take from the magistrate all
power of taking any coercive order with the vilest heretics." — Letters,
ii. 1 84. The case of New England, however, was very peculiar. The
colonists had not only gone there for freedom of conscience, but had
sought the wilderness to be free from the contaminating presence of
the unholy. When, therefore, they were intruded on there, and espe-
cially by those who did so systematically and to give offence, this was
akin to persecution. The Quakers, by sedulous cultivation, had reached
a marvellous advancement in the art of provocation ; and when they
heard of a place where the heterodox were hotly persecuted, they con-
cluded that such was the spot whither they were constrained to go and
lift up their testimony.
212 CHARLES I.
Goodwin, and Sympson — were ever spoken of as " the
five dissenting brethren," when the Pi-esl)yterians be-
wailed the troubles tlicy had to endure in the West-
minster Assembly.
Another element of interruption was carefully
planted in this Assembly in the body called in Pres-
byterian language " Erastians." They belonged to a
wide range of opinions, the term being applied to all
those who, whether they desired to support a Chris-
tian Church or not, would not admit that in its out-
ward form and government it was a divine institution
endowed with powers independent of the State.
They consisted in great measure of what Baillie
calls " worldly profane men, who were extremely
affrighted to come under the yoke of ecclesiastical
discipline." The working majority of the English
Parliament was Erastian. Hence it supported the
Independent party, as less mischievous than the Pres-
byterian. At the same time it sent into the Assembly
a portion of itself — a small body, but infinitely pow-
erful in intellect. It contained Whitelocke and Sir
Harry Vane, but greatest of all, Selden. He knew
more of the history, jjractice, and law of the Christian
Church in all parts of the world, than all the rest
of the Assembly. He had the power which such
knowledge confers ; and when precedent was appealed
to, as it could not but be, and that frequently and
vehemently, he was absolute lord of the debate.
In the midst of these opposing forces the Scots
commissioners did their part with great address.
The Assembly having been constructed entirely by
the English Parliament, had no authority in Scot-
land. The Scots were invited to sit as members with
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1644-46. 213
votes ; but this honour they very wisely declined — in
any vote taken they would be only as one to fifteen.
They took the position of representatives of the
Church of Scotland, and in attendance in London was
a considerable committee from their own Estates at
home to instruct and support them. Thus they held
the position of ambassadors from one supreme power
to another. They might, as representing Scotland,
give up any point to the Assembly ; but their country
could not be compromised by the resolutions of that
body. There was great ability in the small group of
Scots commissioners. "Warriston could not cope with
Selden in knowledge about the practice of the Jews
or the early Christian Church ; but he had gone
through great practice as an ecclesiastical lawyer; and
as the custodier of the records of the Kirk, he knew
things that no general scholar had the means of know-
ing. Henderson and G-illespie were men of genius and
great eloquence, Avho obtained a high celebrity not
only at home but in England as popular preachers.
Baillie was not only a gTcat scholar, but endowed
with a potent genius for diplomacy. We have seen
that he was a thorough Presbyterian enthusiast ; but
though he saw that God was working for the estab-
lishment of the Presbyterian organisation all over the
world, he felt that the policy and ability of man was
one of the instruments by which it was foreordained
that this consummation was to be carried.
The Independents and many of the " Sectaries "
were with them in points of pure doctrine, and there
was a prospect that in the matter of forms of worship
there might be a reasonable compromise. The great
point of difference was Church government, and this
2 14 CHARLES I.
it was the great object of the Scots commissioners to
defer until the hand of Providence should improve
their position for enforcing that Presbyterian organ-
isation which was of divine right. On the question
of lay eldership we find Baillie saying : " This is a
point of high consequence, and upon no other we
expect so great difficulty, except alone on Indepen-
dency ; wherewith we purpose not to meddle in haste
till it please God to advance our army, which we
expect will much assist our arguments. " And again :
" The Independents, being most able men and of
great credit, fearing no less than banishment from their
native country if presbyteries were erected, are watch-
ful that no conclusion be taken for their prejudice.
It was my advice — which Mr Henderson presently
applauded and gave me thanks for it — to eschew a
public rupture with the Independents till we were more
able for them. As yet a presbytery to these people is
conceived to be a strange monster. It was our good,
therefore, to go on hand in hand so far as we did
agree against the common enemy, hoping that in our
difi'erences, when we behoved to come to them, God
would give us light. In the mean time we would
essay to agree upon the Directory of Worship, wherein
we expected no small help from these men to abolish
the great idol of England — the Service-book — and to
erect in all the parts of worship a full conformity to
Scotland in all things worthy to be spoken of." ^
In any difference with the English Presbyterians
the Scots commissioners were strong, and they knew
how to use their strength. If it Avas the Presbyterian
order of Church government that these English desired
1 Letters, ii. Ill, 117.
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1644-46. 215
really to have, then in Scotland they would find it in
all its fair proportions. There it had long been elabo-
rated and worked out — all objections sifted, all defects
removed. It was not as if they came forward with
general principles to be resolved into practical detail
by debate. No morsel of the system could now be
counted an open question. To differ from any part
of it was to censure and attack their brethren of the
Church of Scotland. Although the English Presby-
terians felt and admitted the strength of this posi-
tion, it was nought to the Independents. These,
though few in number, were watchful, and provok-
ingly untiring in debate. The majority were ever
caught up by them in such manner as the following :
" We were next settling on the manner of the prayer
— if it were good to have two prayers before sermon,
as we use, or but one, as they use ; if in that first
prayer it were mete to take in the king, Church, and
sick, as they do, or leave those to the last prayer, as
we. While we were sweetly debating on these things
in came Mr Goodwin, who incontinent essayed to turn
all upside down, to reason against all directories, and
our very first grounds ; also, that all prefacing was
unlawful."^ And in the midst of such minute separ-
ate provocations the much-enduring chronicler bursts
occasionally into a loud general wail, such as this : "In
this long anarchy the sectaries and heretics increase
marvellously. Yet we are hopeful, if God might help
us, to have our presbyteries erected as we expect
shortly to have them, and get the chief of the Inde-
pendents to join with us in our practical conclusions,
as we are much labouring for it, and are not yet out
1 Baillie's Letters, ii. 123.
2l6 CHARLES I.
of hope — we trust to win about all the rest of this wild
and enormous people. However, for the time, the
confusions al)out religion are very great and remedi-
less." 1
The Presyterians were desirous to have the Inde-
pendents with them, but in the end were strong
enough in the Assembly far to outvote them. " Truly,"
says the same chronicler, " if the cause were good,
the men have plenty of learning, wit, eloquence, and,
above all, boldness and stiffness, to make it out ; but
when they had wearied themselves and overwearied
us all, we found the most they had to say against the
presbytery was but curious idle niceties ; yea, that
all they could bring was no ways concluding. Every
one of their arguments, when it had been pressed to
the full in one whole session, and sometimes in two
or three, was voyced, and found to be light unani-
mously by all but themselves." ^
No other conclusion could have been anticipated,
and it is creditable to Baillie's taste that it is so cour-
teously expressed. Perhajjs, too, it may be counted
creditable to the overwhelming majority that they
heard the minority so patiently. The victory, how-
ever, was of little avail ; for adverse influences were
waxing strong in the power that would control the
Assembly. When the first propositions went up
from the Assembly to Parliament, the Independents
published a renowned appeal, called the " Apologetical
Narration," which helped mightily to increase the
growing disinclination towards the re-establishment
of any organised Church. Parliament had much to
do, and kept the Assembly hanging on in expectation
1 Baillie's Letters, ii. 172. -' Ibid., 14.5.
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1644-46. 217
of a concurrence in its proceedings. On the matter
of a Directory of Worship the Houses did not trouble
themselves. A formula of ordination was altered by
them ; but on the indignant remonstrance of the As-
sembly the alterations Avere withdrawn. Parliament
would not quarrel Avith the clergy on a matter which
almost entirely concerned themselves. But when an
organisation was sent up for carrying into eftect, by
discipline over the laity and otherwise, the divine
right of Presbyterian Church government, it en-
countered a cj^uiet but very obdurate resistance. The
Parliament did not so much object to the organisation
itself, as to the source from which its power was to
come, as shortly defined to them in the proposition
that " the Lord Jesus, as King and Head of His
Church, hath therein appointed a government in
the hand of Church officers distinct from the civil
magistrate." The Parliament were ready to concede
the greater part of the organisation proposed, pro-
vided the two Houses took the place of " King and
Head of the Church," so as to be able to alter the
organisation from time to time if it did not work to
their satisfaction. After much cavilling the two
Houses uttered their celebrated " ordinance for settling
of Church government" of 14th March 1646. It
began with pious invocations and devout thanks for
assistance from above, with a sanctimonious prolix-
ity rarely exceeded in the utterances of professional
divines. Coming to the practical part, it began with
much promise : " By the merciful assistance of God,
having removed the Book of Common Prayer, with
all its unnecessary and burdensome ceremonies, and
established the Directory in the room thereof; and
2l8 CHARLES I.
having abolished the prelatical hierarchy of archbishops,
bishops, and their dependants, and instead thereof
laid the foundation of a presbyterial government in
every congregation, with subordination to classical,
provincial, and national assemblies." So far well ; but
the few words in which the clause came to an end
told the Covenanters that the power so temptingly
described was not for them. The words following on
the subordination to three grades of assemblies were
simply, "And of them all to the Parliament." This
ordinance, containing twenty-three articles or sections,
completed a previous oi-dinance for the establishment
of discipline, and especially for excluding persons
convicted of scandalous crimes from ecclesiastical
privileges. It carried its offence on its forehead by
declaring its object to be "the avoiding, as far as
possibly may be, all arbitrary power ; and that all
such cases wherein persons should be suspended from
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper should be brought
to the cognisance and pass the judgment of the
Parliament." It was felt desirable to arrange, " with-
out having recourse to the Parliament itself from all
parts of the kingdom, upon every such emergent case,
which might prove troublesome and tedious." Elder-
ships, therefore, were to be elected by congregations,
under the supervision of the Parliamentary " Tryers of
Election of Elders." The scandalous offences on which
these elders should in the first instance judge Avere
closely defined by Parliament ; and it Avas provided
that " in every province persons shall be chosen by
the Houses of Parliament that shall be commissioners
to judge of scandalous offences not enumerated in
any ordinance of Parliament." Over all these was an
ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, 1644-46. 219
ultimate recourse to Parliament, should there be in-
sufficiency or tyranny in this organisation.^ When
that mighty tribunal thus undertook to manage the
parochial affairs of every parish, and to superintend
its kirk-session work, the Presbyterian party must
have seen, if they did not sooner discover, that the
predominant party in the two Houses were treating
them with solemn mockery.
When they broke forth into vehement remon-
strances the Houses treated them Avith decorum, and
were to hear them at full length. After a Parliamen-
tary fashion, with something of a sarcastic formality,
certain queries were put to them touching the nature
of the Headship and the evidence or title-deeds of its
existence. They were such queries as the Houses
might put, in an inquiry into the origin of a fran-
chise, or the charter and constitution of a corporation.
There were nine of these queries ; but perhaps the
three first in order may suffice to show their char-
acter : —
" 1. Whether the parochial and congregational or
presbyterial elderships a,vejure divino, and by the will
and appointment of Jesus Christ ; and whether any
particular Church government be jure divino, and
what that government is 1
" 2. Whether all the members of the said elderships,
as members thereof, or which of them, are jure divino,
and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ ?
" 3. Whether the superior assemblies or elderships
— viz., the classical, provincial, and national — whether
all or any of them, and which of them, are jure divino,
and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ 1 "
1 Pari. Hist, iii. 443-49.
220 CHARLES I.
That there might be no opportunity for sweeping
these questions and their particuLirities away in vague
decLamatiou, the Houses, besides requiring that to each
answer the Scriptural evidence should be set forth,
ordered that "every minister present at the debate of
any of these questions do, upon every resolution that
shall be presented to the flouse concerning the same,
subscribe his name, either with the affirmative or nega-
tive, as he gives his vote ; and that those who dissent
from the major part shall set down their positive
opinion, with the express texts of Scripture on which
they are grounded."^
If the Houses expected a literal compliance with
these instructions, they were certainly rearing up a
portentous report for their own perusal and consider-
ation. But the order had naturally the effect rather
of extinguishing than promoting the organising la-
bours of the Assembly. It was with heavy hearts that
those commissioners from the Scots Covenanters, who
had seen so brilliant a dawn rise on the Westminster
Assembly, beheld and felt these things. With all
their determined fatalism, it must ere this time have
been growing clear to them that they were not des-
tined to establish a Presbyterian rule over the British
dominions. In three years there had come a change.
AVhen all England was a great camp, and all its men
becoming soldiers, the Scots army, much diminished,
was no longer of vital moment in the struggle. The
Long Parliament had the divines of the Independent
party to conciliate, and, what was more serious, their
soldiers, and Cromwell, their favourite general. An
ephemeral presbytery existed in London, and there
1 Pari. Hist, iii. 463 464.
DIRECTORY OF WORSHIP, 1645-46. 221
were some others ; but when the Assembly died in
1648, its mighty projects of Church government died
with it.
In other things, liowever, it left behind some fruits
of its labours which have become both familiar and
dear to the majoi'ity of the Scottish people. The
Directory of Worship was carried through with much
hax'mony before the vital quarrels began. We have
seen that the old Prayer-book of Scotland and Geneva
— the Book of Common Order — became popular among
the early dissenters from the Church of England.
After the lapse of seventy years, however, it seems to
have been long foro-otten. The feelino- of the Puritans
and the Independents was running strong against all
set forms of prayer. It was now six years since the
Service-book had been sent to Scotland to supersede
the Book of Common Order. The latest known edi-
tion of this book bears date in 1643, and it seems
likely that the old affection for it had died off in the
hot contest against Laud's Service-book, and the
growing sympathy with the English Puritans. There
seems to have been no attempt in the Assembly of
Divines to keep it in existence ; but it was not ex-
pressly condemned, and its use might have easily been
accommodated to the injunctions of the Directory.^
' In the Britisli Museum there is a small ritual with the title, 'The
New Booke of Common Prayer, according to the Forme of the Kirke of
Scotland, our Brethren in Faith and Covenant. Printed by John Joness,
1644.' It contains the greater part of the ordinary daily service in the
Book of Common Order, and we may conjecture that it was offered to
the Assembly as a compromise between the Scots Presbyterian Prayer-
book and none. Whether it is to be found elsewhere or not, the follow-
in" passage from this little book contains a subtle, but distinct, exposi-
tion of the spirit in which translations of the Scriptures were accepted
amonc many of the various religious communities who renounced Epis-
copacy and the Church of England : " The highest degree and most an-
222 CHARLES I.
Though the Book of Common Order got strong
support when the question lay between it and Laud's
Service-book, it lost rather than gained friends after
that contest passed over. The Assembly of Divines
offered a strong bribe to the Scots clergy to abandon
it, since the English Book of Common Prayer — offen-
sive as the foundation of the Service-book — was to go
with it. The enforcement of the Directory of Public
Worship in England and Ireland was more than com-
pensation for the loss, if it was a loss, of the Scots
Book of Common Order. But to the Scots divines
the mortifying result of all was that they lost this
compensation. Brownism or Independency, with its
toleration, swept all away ; and the Directory was no
more the absolute rule throughout the three kingdoms
than the Book of Common Prayer was in England and
the Book of Common Order in Scotland.^
nexeJ to the ministry anfl government of the Church is the exposition of
God's word contained in the Okl and New Testament. But because men
cannot so well profit in that knowledge except they be first instructed in
the tongues and human sciences (for now worketh God not commonly T)y
miracles), it is necessary that seed be sowed for the time to come, to the
intent that the Church be not left barren and waste to our posterity ; and
that schools also be erected and colleges maintained with just and suffi-
cient stipends, wherein youth may be trained in the knowledge and fear
of God, that in their ripe age they may prove worthy members of our
Lord Jesus Christ, whether it be to rule in civil policy or to serve in the
spiritual ministry, or else to live in godly reverence and subjection." On
occasion when " the minister prayeth to God for the removing of some
present trouble or otherwise, as the present occasion doth require. This
done, the people sing a psalm altogether in a tune which all may under-
stand, as it hath used to be done both in England and Scotland before
sermon ; and whilst the said psalm is singing, the minister goeth up
into the pulpit, as God shall move his heart, first begging assistance of
God's Holy Spirit, and so proceedeth to the sermon."
1 Samuel Rutherford, in his 'Free Disputation against pretended
Liberty of Conscience,' p. 268, says: " It rejoiced the hearts of the godly
in the three kingdoms, when the Houses passed an ordinance for the
Directory of Public Worship to be used in all the three kingdom.?, and
DIRECTORY OF WORSHIP, 1645-46. 223
The Directory sets forth the order of worship and
administration of Church ordinances. It gives the
tenor of tlie prayers and other administrations spoken
by the ministers ; but it differs from a ritual in so far
as it gives the tenor only, not the words to be used.
It appears to have been adjusted chiefly by Henderson
and his brethren in Scotland, since both in arrange-
ment and phraseology it has a decidedly close resem-
blance to a pamphlet for the purpose of spreading
through England information regarding the method
of worship in the Church of Scotland.^
Among the rarities of collectors one may yet see a
thin quarto called ' A Directory for the Public Worship
of God throughout the three Kingdoms of England,
Scotland, and Ireland.' But the practical end fell
far short of this comprehensive promise. In the
troubles of England the Directory was lost, and the
Restoration brought back the old Prayer-book. It was
not one of the works of the Assembly destined even to
laid aside the Book of Common Prayers and burdensome ceremonies
upon a resolution professed to the world, according to the Covenant, to
reform religion according to the Word of God and the example of the
Lest Reformed Churches, which was accordingly approved and ratified
in the Parliament of Scotland. If we then turn back again from that
iiniformity, what do we also but pull down and destroy what we have
builded ? Especially since uniformity, which we sware to endeavour in
our Covenant, is cried down by Familists and Antinomians, and all
external worship and profession of Christ before men as indifferent, and
all religion intrenched into only things of the mind and heart, upon a
dream that the written Word of God is not our rule obliging us, but an
inward law in the mind, beyond all ordinances, must regulate us now
under the Gospel." These, as the reader will easily see, are not the
words of an ignorant man indulging hot fanaticism. Rutherford was
a learned divine ; and this .short passage — one of course selected from
xaanj — may be taken as a good test of how the learned among the Scots
Covenanters took the new rule that was to prevail in England.
' This pamphlet has been already referred to. It is called 'The
Government and Order of the Church of Scotland.' Edinburgh, 1641.
224 CHARLES I.
liave much influence iu Scotland, where it has been
and is nominally a rule. The tendency ever since
Laud's Liturgy has been towards freedom from all
directorial control. So slightly has the Directory been
of late either obeyed or known, that when, on a recent
occasion, a distinguished clergyman of the Church
of Scotland was threatened with ecclesiastical punish-
ment for indulging in certain innovations, it was dis-
covered that the departures from the common practice
which incurred this condemnation were restorations
of the practice enjoined by the Directory.
Scotland owes to the Assembly of Divines the
psalmody which was sanctioned by the Established
Church, and generally adopted by the other Presby-
terian communities. The Psalter in the Book of
Common Order seems to have consisted of such trans-
lation of each psalm as the publisher chose. Always
the greater part, and sometimes the whole, were taken
from the version of Sternhold and Hopkins. We have
seen that the revision of the Psalm-book had occa-
sionally come up in the General Assembly of Scotland.
In the Westminster Assembly it arose in the form of
findina; a version of the Psalms which mio;ht be certified
for use by the Churches of England, Scotland, and
L'eland. The version of Sternhold and Hoj)kins was
to be superseded ; it was perhaps a latent objection
that it occupied a place in the Book of Common
Prayer. The version attached to Laud's Scottish
Service-book would have been drawn from a still
more polluted fountain.^
' This Psalter is called on the title-page ' The Psalms of King David
translated by King James.' They were in reality translated by the
poet, Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling.
SCOTTISH PSALTER, 1646-48. 225
Two other Scottish versions claimed notice. One
was by Sir William Muir of Rowallan.^ The other
was by the notoiious Zachary Boyd. Zachary's writ-
ings have often been cited as utterances of powerful
buffoonery made when the unconscious author dreamed
that he was solemn and impressive. It was common
to that age, especially among the clergy, to become
familiar and jocular with solemn things. Zachary
went a step beyond his brethren in this propensity.
Hence all the good things of the kind have been
attributed to him, and have sometimes been exag-
gerated to make them fit on to his reputation. His
psalter was passed by, somewhat to his mortifica-
tion.^
The Assembly selected, as a fundamental draft of
a psalter, a translation recently made by Francis Rous,
a distinguished member of the Long Parliament, and
a lay member of the Assembly. After discussion and
criticism at much length, the divines passed the
Psalter as amended by them, and sent it up for the
approval of Parliament. There was a rival version by
William Barton, befriended by some members of the
House ; and the Assembly received an alarming de-
mand, " to certify to this House why these psalms
may not be sung in church as well as other transla-
1 Sir William Muir's version does not appear to have ever been
printed. Baillie, writing from tlie Assembly, says : " I wish I had Row-
allan's Psalter here ; for I like it much better than any yet I have seen."
— Letters, ii. 121. A specimen of this version will be found in 'The
Historie and Descent of the House of Rowallan, by Sir William Miur,'
note t, p. 133.
^ " Our good friend Mr Zachary Boyd has put himself to a great deal
of pains and charges to make a psalter ; but I ever warned him his
hopes were groundless to get it received in our churches ; yet the flat-
teries of his unadvised neighbours makes him insist in his fruitless
design." — Baillie's Letters, iii, 3.
VOL. VII. P
226 CHARLES I.
tions by such as are willing to use tliem." The
divines in solemn conclave apprehended "that if
liberty should be given to people to sing in churches
every one that translation which they desire, by
that means several translations mio;ht come to be used
— yea, in one and the same congregation at the same
time, which would be a great distraction and hin-
drance to edification." But Parliament finally ordered
"that the Book of Psalms set forward by Mr Eous, and
perused by the Assembly of Divines, be sung in all
churches and chapels in the kingdom of England, do-
minion of Wales, and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed." ^
This Psalter was authorised for Scotland by the
General Assembly and the Commission of Estates in
the beginning of the year 1650.^ Every one ac-
quainted with Scotland knows how fervently the
genius of the people, musical and religious, centred in
this book of vocal praise. The work of Eous was
familiar and beloved in every Presbyterian church
and home ; but among names of any celebrity it would
be difficult to find one less known among the people
of Scotland than Francis Rous.^
^ Baillie's Letters, iii. 539.
2 A very instructive account of the literature of Scottish psalmody
will be found in " Notices regarding the Metrical Versions of the Psalms
received by the Church of Scotland," in the appendix to Laing's edi-
tion of BaUlie's Letters and Journals, iii. 525.
^ There seem to have been contemporary reasons for keeping his name
out of sight among the Scots Presbyterians. We find, before the com-
plete adoption of this Psalter, BaUlie, in some perplexity, saying : " I
have farthered that work ever with my best wishes ; but the scruple now
arises of it in my mind — -the first author of the translation, ilr Eous,
my good friend, has complied with the Sectaries, and is a member of the
Republic. How a psalter of his framing, albeit with miich variation,
shall be received by our Church, I do not well know ; yet it is needful
we should have one, and a better in haste we cannot have." — Letters,
&c., iii. 97.
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY STANDARDS, 1646-48. 227
More eminently than either in the Directory or the
Psalm-book, have the achievements of the Westminster
Assembly been renowned in connection with religious
life in Scotland. The fruit of a long process of intel-
lectual toil and eager debate was their announcement
of the Presbyterian faith of the British Islands in
three forms. These were — 1. " The Confession of
Faith ; " 2. " The Larger Catechism ;" 3. " The Shorter
Catechism." These may be received as the final set-
tlement and adjustment of those religious contests
about the objects of which the reader has perhaps
found more than enough in these pages. They are
like the treaty of peace at the end of a war, going over
with dry formality events which have had their day
of exciting interest — a sort of document notably un-
interesting to all but close investigators. The three
form a code of doctrine, as to which it is held, by
something akin to what the English sages call " a
fiction of law," that every Scots Presbyterian believes
all its positions — by a bolder fiction he is held to un-
derstand them all. As to his means for legitimately
accomplishing both ends, he knows, or has known, the
Shorter Catechism, becavise he has had to commit it
to memory at school. But a Scottish layman well
grotmded in the Confession and the Larger Catechism
is a rare being ; and it has been sometimes suspected
that there are points in both of which some even of
the clergy have not a familiar knowledge. It may
be noticed that the Confession of Faith was the first
announcement from authority of the books which
were in Scotland to be counted the canonical Bible.
Like England in the Thirty-nine Articles, Scotland
adopted the old accepted canon, without of course
228 CHARLES I.
referring to such a coincidence as an authority or a
precedent. The Confession declares that the Scripture
should be translated into the vulgar tongue, "that
the AVord of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may
Avorship Him in an acceptable manner, and through
patience and comfort of the Scripture may have hope."
No one version, however, is held as authorised. On
the other hand, it is declared that the Old Testament
in Hebrew, and the New Testament in Greek, "being
immediately inspired by God, and by His care and
providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore autlien-
tical, so as in all controversies of religion the Church
is finally to appeal unto them."
It must always be I'emembered that these Acts and
standards were not sent into Scotland for observance
there by the authoiity of the Assembly of Divines.
This institution was purely English. So far as Scot-
land was concerned, they acted merely as draftsmen
and councillors. The title prefixed to the Confession of
Faith, and foUoAved in the other documents, announces
the method of their transference to Scotland : " The
Confession of Faith agreed upon by the Assembly
of Divines at Westminster, examined and approved
anno 1647 by the Church of Scotland, and ratified by
Act of Parliament 1649."
While these deliberations, from which Scotland was
to inherit the chief permanent result, drew out their
tedious length in the Jerusalem Chamber of St Steph-
en's, the great events of the civil war were rapidly
following each other. The separate events in which
Scotland was concerned were few, and not pleasant to
remember. As we have already seen, the Scots com-
missioners added considerable weisfht to the charses
EXECUTIONS OF ROYALISTS, 1644-46. 229
which brought Laud to the block. Other men con-
spicuous in enmity to the course taken by the Scots
Estates were marked out for vengeance. The first
of these was Sir John Gordon of Haddo, the house
which afterwards became the earldom of Aberdeen.
He was one of the leaders of the Gordons in the north ;
and granting that hostility to the Estates was a
crime — and they, having the supreme power for the
time, had declared it so to be — it was easy to prove
that he had done enough to justify any amount of
punishment.^ He was tried by the Estates, and
sentenced to death. On the 19th of July 1644 his
head was struck off by " the Maiden " or guillotine.
He was followed by Sir Eobert Spottiswood,
Ogilvie of Inverquharity, who had been an active
leader in the contest with Argyle, and five others of
smaller note. The case of Sir Eobert Spottiswood was
peculiar. He had not taken arms, and was to be dealt
with as a treasonable statesman. He was charged
with several acts hostile to the Estates ; and among
these, as Secretary of State he had sealed and signed
the commission " to James Graham, sometime Earl of
Montrose, a declared and forfeited traitor and an ex-
communicated person," appointing him, as lieutenant
of the kingdom, to raise forces "against the king's
majesty's good subjects, and against the forces raised
and levied in arms by authority of the Estates of
Parliament of this kingdom." ^ It was believed that
his fate Avas somewhat in retaliation for his exertions
in the condemnation of Balmerinoch in 1633. He
was beheaded on the 16th of January 1646.
1 See his indictment, Acts of Pari., vi. 21.
2 State Trials, iv. 769.
230 CHARLES I.
The Scots army in Eugiand could only be called an
auxiliary force subject to the tactic of the great army
at the nominal disposal of the English Parliament.
Still the Scots kept apart under their own officers,
carefully avoiding any surrender of their separate
nationality. They were posted before Newark, wdien,
on the morning of the 5th of May 1645, the king
appeared within their lines. The great battle of
Naseby had been fought. Many other calamities had
crowded round his cause — he was besieged in Oxford,
and when the place was taken he was at the mercy of
his enemies. He would have gone to London, but a
safe-conduct was refused to him — an assurance that
the war was a war of life or death to each side. The
king travelled in humble disguise with two attendants.
It is said that when he came to Harrow-on-the-Hill
he was yet uncertain where he should seek refuge,
and " much perplexed what course to resolve upon
— London or northward." ^ His dreary journey from
Oxford to Newark, in Nottinghamshire, was eight
days long. On his arrival he found Leven in com-
mand, and Avas received by the old man with as
much ceremonial and dutiful submission as the con-
dition of a camp enabled him to display. It was
remai'ked that in these courtesies the general gave up
his sword, and that the king did not give it back, as
Leven expected. To prevent the king from personally
interfering with the discipline of his army, he found it
expedient to give a strong hint that he was virtually
commander there, though in humble duty to his
majesty.
There was a statement, for which there seems to be
' Clarendon, 633.
THE KING IN THE SCOTS CAMP, 1645. 23I
no foundation, that the king went to the Scots camp
in terms of a treaty or arrangement. It seems, in fact,
to have been, like many other acts of his, the result
of a sudden idea, in the pursuit of which he deceived
himself with the notion that he was pursuing a pro-
fouud, or, as others held it to be, a perfidious policy.
The Parliament required the Scots, Avhom they
counted as a mercenary army in their service, to sur-
render the king and the two men who had assisted
him. The Scots declined to obey the requisition.
They gave their august visitor a guard of honour,
whose duty it was to protect his person and prevent
him from escaping from the Scots camp as he had
from Oxford. They moved northwards to Newcastle,
which Avas virtually their own, in order that they
might more effectually protect the king from his enemies
and keep him to themselves. Perhaps no army ever
held a deposit under the like conditions, and casuistry
might have been let loose to defend or attack what-
ever course the Scots selected for his disposal.
During his abode with the Scots army in Newcastle
he chose to devote his otherwise unoccupied time to a
piece of Avork which seemed as capricious as his visit
— a dispute with one of the Scots divines on the
fundamental principles of Church government. He
selected as his opponent Alexander Henderson. The
controversy was unproductive, unless we are to be-
lieve, with a class of writers now nearly extinct, that
it brought the divine to a premature end. Hender-
son no doubt died soon afterwards — on the 19th of
August 1646". His death was attributed to remorse,
whether at having ventured to contradict the Lord's
anointed, or from his conscience telling him that the
232 CHARLES I.
king spoke, like his father at the Hampton Court con-
troversy, through special inspiration, and therefore that
his own long-cherished Presbyterian opinions were
false and perilous. It might be supposed that if con-
tradicting and thwarting the poor king were among
the natural causes of death, it must have caused ex-
tensive mortality in that age. Yet in this instance
the assertion took so much hold that Henderson's
partisans and the General Assembly itself were much
troubled in refuting it.
Eenowned as this controversy is in history, it may
be doubted if there are many people now alive who
have read it through. It has little to excite atten-
tion or interest. It belongs to that driest, most in-
terminable, and least effective or conclusive of all
theological contests — the dispute about the question
whether the order of the primitive Church was
Prelatic or Presbyterian. A small contribution to
that dreary ocean of debate, it is unendowed with the
virulence that confers a strong life on its surface here
and there. It is not an earnest dispute. The king
merely sought by an act of condescension to convert
or disarm a powerful opponent. There is little in
what he says to excite any feeling save a shade of
compassion in seeing a haughty reserved spirit sub-
mitting to so humiliating a task. He professes to
desire the counsel and information of learned men
for his guidance, and he singles out Henderson as a
learned man. There is a foregone conclusion, however,
that it is for himself to decide. He is like the judge
who sits to hear counsel learned in the law, yet re-
serves complete command over the final issue.
Had his opponent been either Knox or Andrew
THE KING IN THE SCOTS CAMP, 1645. 233
Melville, the contest would have had a different as-
pect. Challenged by a king to a formal dialectic
tournament, either of them would have rushed to
the battle with
" The stern joy "vvhich ■warriors feel
111 foemen worthy of their steel."
But Henderson was of another kind. If it is true that
he was, as some assert, though others deny, a worldly
man at heart, he saw that royalty and prelacy were
not to be the steps towards promotion. He is true
throughout to his cause, and true without violence or
arrogance. To his royal opponent he is respectful, but
not servile. He uses moderately the opportunity of
inflicting tediousness, which is so often the privilege
of his class; and his contribution to the controversy is
hardly twice the length of the king's. On the whole,
he acquitted himself with moderation and good taste.
The chief point between them is, that on the king ask-
ing what can be said against the Church of England
as the interpreter of the forms of the primitive hier-
archy, he is met by the denial that there ever was a
primitive hierarchy to be interpreted ; and this posi-
tion is defended by the usual references to fathers
of the Church and the like. The divine right of
kings having no place in Henderson's argument,
he excites something approaching to a haughty re-
buke by his method of referring to them as men
fallible and responsible. Eef erring to King James's
acknowledgments of the discipline of the Church of
Scotland, he is told : " Concerning the king my father,
of happy and famous memory both for his piety and
learning, I must tell you that I had the happiness to
know him much better than you ; wherefore I desire
234 CHARLES I.
you not to be too confident in tlie knowledge of liis
opinions, for I daresay, sliould his ghost now speak, he
would tell you that a bloody reformation was never
lawful, as not warranted by God's Word, and that
■prceces et lacIirymcB sunt arma ecclesice." And then
coming closer to that claim of absolute power which
it was the misfortune of his life to pursue : " For your
defensive war, — as I do acknowledge it as a great sin
for a king to oppress the Church, so I hold it absolutely
unlawful for subjects, upon any pretence whatever, to
make war, though defensive, against their lawful sover-
eign; against which no less proofs will make me yield
than God's Word. And let me tell you that upon
such points as these, instances as well as comparisons
are odious."^
The king remained with the Scots upwards of eight
months. In writings contemporary and of later date
there is a world of conjecture as to his designs or
secret thoughts, with no distinct or satisfactory solu-
tion. One subtle suggestion, for instance, would afford
a substantial reason for the Henderson controversy —
was it that he might have an opportunity, at any time
before its conclusion, to say that he was convinced,
and to throw himself heartily into the cause of the
Scots and their Presbyterian brethren in England 1
We know that this course was pressed on him, and
that he did not take it. Among other distinct facts is,
that his cause in England was gone, and acknowledged
even by himself to be so. He went so far with the
Scots as to abandon his ostensible quarrel with them,
by the withdrawal of Montrose's commission as lieu-
' The Papers which passed at Newcastle betwixt liis Sacred Majesty
and Mr Ak^xander Henderson, 163, 180.
THE KING IN THE SCOTS CAMP, 1645. 23S
tenant-general. Montrose had to leave Scotland ; but
it was maintained that this was only keeping the word
of promise in the lip, since there was still an armed
Cavalier force in the north. The king, it was said, could
have disbanded it, but it remained active and mischiev-
ous until David Leslie went with a superior force for
its chastisement.^ Another fact seems certain, that if
the Scots took the king absolutely under their protec-
tion, and removed him to Scotland, they must expect
a serious war with the predominant party in England.
Their commissioners in London were told this. From
the earnestness of their endeavours to gain over the
king to their own Presbyterian cause, it is clear that
had he fairly accepted that alternative, they would
have been prepared for this formidable war.
There was another difficulty. As we have seen,
their importance as a power in the English contest
had gradually decreased. Now that the Avar had
virtually come to an end, their presence in England
as an armed force was an offensive intrusion. On the
other hand, heavy arrears were due to them, and they
would abide until these were paid. They Avere like
a creditor in possession, and if their debt were not
legitimately settled, they would continue to help
themselves by forced contributions for their support.
No doubt they also felt that in the possession of the
king they held in pawn a pledge that might be made
available for enforcing their claim. To any other
effect he must have been a troublesome and unwelcome
guest, since he exposed the Scots to the enmity of the
English army, yet did not reward them by compliance
with their demands.
1 Thurloe's State Papers, i. 89.
236 CHARLES I.
After much haggling there was a satisfactory settle-
ment of the arrears. AVhen this had been adjusted,
the Scots delivered the king into the hands of com-
missioners from the English Parliament. This was
done on the 8tli of January 1647, and then the Scots
army with all due expedition returned home. Another
way of telling the story would be, that the Scots,
having adjusted the pecuniary business which de-
tained them in England, returned home, leaving the
king behind them.
The world is familiar with the transaction as put
in another shape different from either of these — the
Scots sold their sovereign to his enemies for a sum of
money, and gave it the name of arrears of pay. Had
they invited the king to trust himself in their hands,
they might have been chargeable with treachery; but
there is no good evidence that anything was done to
induce him to rely on them. On the face of the trans-
action there is no connection between the payment
and the surrender ; but the surrender was refused
before the payment was made, and it is very unlikely
that the Scots could have received their money if
they had not surrendered the king. All this is pretty
obvious and consistent with the conclusion already
referred to, that they held the king in pawn for their
claim. Then, apart from any question about trust,
had the king really fled from enemies to find refuge
with friends ? The Scots army were older and
steadier enemies than the English. It was in the
future, no doubt, that in England he was to be put
to death ; but the Scots had no more reason to expect
this of the English than to be themselves suspected of
such a design ; and it was not by the party to whom
THE ENGAGEMENT, 1648. 237
he was intrusted or " sold " by the Scots that he was
put to death, but by the enemies of that party. The
Scots had made up their mind to return home when
their arrears were paid. They could not keep the
king except by taking him with them into Scotland,
and such an act would have implied at once sus-
picion and hostility towards those who had been so
long their allies. The Scots showed in what they
afterwards attempted for him and for his son, that
had he agreed to their terms, and consented to be a
Presbyterian king over a Presbyterian people, they
would have fought for him instead of "selling" him.
But even this has been used to complete the picture
of meanness and treachery. It was Judas over again
— they sold their master, and then, overtaken by re-
morse, committed suicide at Preston and Worcester —
as if the passions which drive the individual man
to crime, followed by penitence, had any analogy
with the multiplied motives which influence com-
munities in their political action. This transac-
tion has been overladen by a heap of controversy.
This is unsupported by the apology that there are
mysteries to be solved, as in the dispute about the
guilt of Queen Mary and other like discussions.
The facts are few and simple, but they are of the
kind to stir political sympathies and antipathies, and
so to be dealt with as these may dictate. When
he left the Scots, accompanied by the Parliamentary
commissioners, he was still a king, though a king sur-
rounded by perils, as he would have been had he been
removed to Edinburgh. By one of these he was soon
overtaken, when Joyce with his troops seized him
on behalf of the army. All this is English history of
238 CHARLES I.
the most momentous and stirring kind, but it touches
ScotLand also. At Newport, in the Isle of Wight,
he did what, if he had done it at Newcastle, would
have carried him to Edinburgh in regal triumph. He
agreed to be the Covenanted monarch of a Presby-
terian people. Given at Newcastle, this assurance
would have been an open, substantial proclamation of
his royal policy, unless he might have said that it
was extorted by armed force. Done in secret during
furtive interviews, and far away from Scottish force
or influence, it was interpreted as an act of treach-
ery to the English Parliament and army, with which
he was in open treaty.
So necessary was it to keep the " Engagement " a
mystery, that the paper on which it was recorded was
absolutely hidden in a hole in the garden at Newport,
where, encased in lead to keep it from damage, it
was covered with earth. The commissioners feared
its discovery if in their custody, and therefore re-
turned with a verbal statement of the result of their
mission. The Committee of Estates took up the En-
gagement, and commissioned an army to aid the king
in return for his concessions. The party against the
Engagement was, however, powerfid — it included
Argyle. It was understood that this Engagement
would band the loyal Presbyterians of Scotland, the
old Parliamentary party in England, and the Cavaliers,
to strive in concert for the restoration of the sovereign
authority to be wielded over three Covenanted king-
doms. But the Church would not accept of so ques-
tionable an alliance. They felt that it would be an
intercommuning with prelatical Malignants, and not
only declined to accept of the Engagement, but ab-
BATTLE OF PRESTON, 1648. 239
jured it as a sin. Tlie Engagers undertook a mighty
project, destined, according to tlieir own expectations,
to revolutionise the whole tenor of the events passing
before their eyes. The end, however, was so futile,
that it is necessary to hurry past it as among the abor-
tive efforts for which history can ouly afford a casual
notice. An army was sent southwards with the
mighty design of an invasion of England. It was put
under the command of the Duke of Hamilton ; and
what he, or others responsible for its organisation, had
made of it, may be best told by his eulogist : " The
regiments were not full, many of them scarce exceeded
half their number, and not the fifth man could handle
pike or musket. The horse were the best mounted
ever Scotland set out, yet most of the troopers were
raw and undisciplined. They had no artillery — not
so much as one field-piece — very little ammunition,
and very few horse to carry it ; for want of which the
duke stayed often in the rear of the whole army till
the countrymen brought in horses, and then conveyed
it with his own guard of horse. Thus the precipi-
tation of affairs in England forced them on a march
before they were in any posture for it ; but now they
were engaged, and they must go forward." ^
This ill-found army wandered, rather than marched,
as far as Preston. There it was surprised by Crom-
well, and broken.^ A treaty, as advantageous as it
1 Burnet's Memoirs, 355.
^ So little is kuo\wi of the details of this affair and the part especially-
taken by Hamilton's force, that there may be some interest in the fuUow-
ino- narrative by Sir Marmaduke Langdale. It is the complaint of a
commander ill supported by his colleague, but there is enough in it to
show abundant mismanagement :—
" The same night certayne intelligence came that Lt.-Generall Crom-
well with all his forces was within 3 miles of my quarters, which I im-
240 CHARLES I.
could obtain, was its only alternative. The treaty of
Uttoxeter was signed on the 25th of August 1658. It
conditioned " that James, Duke of Hamilton, his grace,
with the rest of the officers and soldiers under his
mediately sent to the duke, and told it to my Lord Leviston to acquaint
Lt.-Generall Middleton therewith, and drew my forces together in a tield,
and so marched towards Preston betimes in the morning, where I found
the duke and Lord Calleuder with most part of tlie Scottish foot drawne
up. Their resolution was to march to Wiggan, giving little credit to the
intelligence that came the night before, but s\iffer their horse to continue
in their quarters 10 and 12 miles off.
" Within halfe an hower of our meeting, and by that time I was drawen
into the close neere Preston, the enemy appeared with a small body of
horse ; the Scotts continue their resolution for Wiggan, for which end
they drew their foote over the bridge. The enemy coming the same
way that I had marched, fell upon my quarter, where we continued
skirmishing six houres, in all which time the Scott sent me no relief :
they had very few horse come up, so as those tliey sent me at last were
but few, and were .soone beaten ; but if they had sent me 1000 foote to
have flanked the enemy, I doubt not the day had been ours. Yet I
kept my post, with various successe, many times gathering ground of the
enemy ; and as the Scots acknowledg, they never saw any foote light
better than mine did.
" The duke being incredulous that it was the whole army, sent Sir
Lewis Dives to me, to whom I answered that it was impossible any
forces that were inconsiderable would adventure to presse upon so great
an army as we had, therefore he might conclude it was all the power
they could make, and with which they were resolved to put all to the
hazard, therefore desired that I might be seconded, and have more power
and ammunition, I having spent nine barrels of powder.
" The Scots continue their march over the river, and did not secure a
lane near the bridge, whereby the Parliament forces came on my flanks;
neither did the forces that were left for my supply come to my relief,
but continued in the reare of mine, nor did they ever face the enemy, hut
in bringing up the reare.
" When most part of the Scots were drawn over the bridge, the Parlia-
ment forces pressed hard upon me in the van and flanks, and so drive
me into the towne, where the duke was in person, with some few horse;
but all being lost, retreated over a foord to his foote. After my forces
were beaten, the Parliament forces beat the Scots from the bridge pre-
sently, and so came over into all the lanes, that we could not joyne with
the foote, but were forced to Charlow, where we found Lt. -General
Middleton ready to advance towards Preston towards the foote, which
BATTLE OF PRESTON, 1648. 241
command, now at Uttoxcter, shall render themselves
up prisoners of war, with their horses, arms, and all
other provisions of war, bag and baggage." The offi-
cers and soldiers " shall have their lives and safety of
he did ; Ijut not finding them there, returned to Wiggan, where the
duke was with his foote (mine totally lost).
" There they tooke a resolution to go to my Lord Biron, for which end
they would march that night to Warrington. In their march the Parlia-
ment forces fell so fast npon their rear, that they could not reach War-
rington that night. And Lieutenant-Generall Middleton finding him-
self unable to withstand their forces, left the foote in Warrington to
make their own conditions.
" So as we marched towards Malpas, sixe of the Scottish lords in this
march left iis, whereof my Lord Traquaire was one. Most part sub-
mitted to the Sheriff of Shropshire, who sent two gentlemen of that
country to the duke to offer him the same quarter that the Earl of
Traquaire had. From Malpaa we marched to Drayton and so to Stone ;
in our march from thence to Uttoxeter, the Parliament forces fell upon
the reare, and took Lieutenant-Generall Middleton.
"At Utoxeter the next morning going to attend the duke for his
resolution, I found him extreame sick, not able to march. My Lord
Callender seemed to refuse all wayes of treaty, but rather to march
northward, where we had a considerable force, and the whole kingdome
of Scotland at our backs. Upon this we marched over the river toward
Ashburne. I had the van, and was marching ; presently my Lord of
Callender came to me, told me he would march with me, but that none
of his forces would, and that he had much ado to escape them ; that he
was come himseK alone, his horse pricked in the foote, and without a
cloake. I perswaded his lordship that it was better to return to his
forces, because I could not protect him ; and seeing the Scots had left
me, I was resolved to sever and shift every man for himselfe, but to
capitulate I could not with a safe conscience." — Tracts relating to the
Military Proceedings in Lancashire during the great CivU War, 268-70.
The following local account of the army's march, even if it be in
some measure exaggerated, shows us something much in contrast with
Leslie's orderly invasions : —
" In divers places some whole families have not left them wherewith
to subsist a day, but are glad to come hither for meer subsistance. They
have taken forth of divers families all, the very rackeu crocks and pot-
hooks ; they have driven away all the beasts, sheep, and horses, in divers
townships, all, without redemption, save some poor milche kine. They
tell the people they must have their houses too, and we verily believe it
must be so, because Duke Hamilton hath told them it should be so.
VOL. VII. Q
242 CHARLES I.
their persons assured to them, and shall not be pillaged
or stripped of their wearing clothes."'^
Though the Engagers had not sent into England the
thirty thousand men promised by them, the absence
of a third of that number, and of the officers command-
ing them, weakened the Engagement party. We have
seen that it was when Leslie's army went to England
to join the Parliamentary forces that Montrose was
able to strike a blow for the king. On this occasion
a like opportunity was taken from the opposite side,
with less immediate, but more permanent, success.
The opponents of the Engagement held from the begin-
ning that the Covenant was brought into it as a pre-
tence. They saw Hamilton's army and that of the
English Malignants or Cavaliers acting to a common
end, though carefully avoiding all visible tokens of
concert and co-operation. More thoroughly convinced.
Their usage of some women is extreamly abominable, and of men very
barberous, wberein we apprehend nevertheless something of God's
justice towards very many, who have abundantly desired and rejoyced
at their advance hither : old extream Cavaliers, whom they have most
oppressed in their acts of violence and plunder, to our great adndra-
tion.
"They raile without measure at our ministers, and threaten the destruc-
tion of so many as they can get. Many Cavaliers have sent into Furness
and Cartmel to Sir Thomas Tdsley for protections, but the Scots weigh
not their protections a rush, and Tilsley himself tells the Cavaliers he
can do them no good, but wishes them to use their best shifts in putting
their goods out of the way. They say they'll not leave the country
worth anything ; they make no account of Lambert, they say he is run
away. They are yet in quarters at Burton, Kirby, Whittington, &o.,
and the English at Encross and Furness. They have driven away above
COO cattle and 1500 sheep. They have given such earnest of their
conditions that the country have wholly driven away their cattel of
all sorts towards Yorkshire and the bottom of Lancashire ; forty great
droves at least are gone from us, and through this towne this day."
—Ibid., 254, 255.
' Burnet's Memoirs, 364.
THE WHIGAMORES, 1648. 243
or professing to be so, every day, that Hamilton and
his followers had deserted the Covenant and the na-
tional cause for the sake of helping the king to return
unconditionally to his throne, the minority in the
Estates used all their feudal and popular influence to
gather a force. Argyle was to bring his whole following
of western Highlanders. The clergy of the west were
to a man bitterly against the Engagement, and they
were all hard at work rousing the faithful.
It is at this period that we find for the first time in
the south-Avest of Scotland a zeal for the Covenant
heating by degrees, until it at last outflamed the zeal
of the east, where the Covenant had its cradle. At
Mauehline, in Ap'shire, a large body of men assembled
under the auspices of Lord Egiinton, a zealous Cove-
nanting potentate. They formed themselves into a
military party, and marched in the direction of Edin-
burgh, gathering as they went. Their feat was called
"the Whigamores' Raid;" and this is the first use
appearing in history of a word which, in its abbrevi-
ated form of " Whig," was destined to political ser-
vice too well known to need a word of explanation.^
Leslie undertook to gather into a compact army the
heterogeneous forces thus assembling from different
quarters, and it seemed as if there were to be a new
civil war in Scotland. The only considerable inci-
^ They are called Whigamores by Sir James Balfour, a contemporary.
Burnet, who was then five years old, afterwards used the term in his
' Memoirs of the House of Hamilton,' and also in his ' History of his own
Times ' where he offers this etymological explanation of it : " The south-
west counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to serve them
throughout the year, and the northern party producing more than they
need those in the west come in the summer to buy at Leith the storse
that come from the north ; and from a word ' whiggam,' used in driv-
ing their horses, all that drove were called the ' whiggamors,' and
244 CHARLES I.
dent of war, however, was that when Argyle with his
HighLanders attempted to take Stirling Castle, they
were assailed and severely handled by Sir George
Monro, who had bronght over a division of Hamil-
ton's army left near the Border when the body of the
army had advanced on Preston.
Argyle and his party, however, found a way to
make their predominance secure. They came to terms
with the victorious Cromwell, who agreed to join them
in Scotland. The fragments of Hamilton's beaten
army, when assembled in Scotland, were insufficient
to cope with the new power. The Committee of
Estates retired, or, as some expressed it, fled. A
group of leaders, with Argyle at their head, formed
a government, and took to themselves the name of
the " Committee of Estates."
The road to Scotland being oj)ened by the destruc-
tion of Hamilton's army, Cromwell marched to Edin-
burgh. He laid before the Committee of Estates,
according to his peculiar rhetoric, divers " considera-
tions," like the preambles of Acts of Parliament — as,
in reference to the army which he had broken : " Con-
sidering that divers of that army are retired into
Scotland, and some of the heads of those Malignants
were raising new forces in Scotland to carry on the
shorter the ' whiggs.' Now in that year, after the news came down of
Duke Hamilton's defeat, the ministers animated their people to rise and
march to Edinburgh ; and they came up, marching at the head of their
parishes, with an imheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way as
tliey came. The Marquis of Argyle and his party came and headed
them, they being about six. thousand. This was called the Whiggamors'
inroad ; and ever after tliat, those who opposed tlie cause came in con-
tempt to be called ' Wliiggs ;' and from Scotland the word was brought
into England, where it is now one of our unhappy terms of distinction."
— Summary of Affairs.
ACT OF CLASSES, 1649. 245
same design, and that they will certainly be able to
do the like upon all occasions of advantage ; " there-
fore he demanded assurance, in name of the kingdom
of Scotland, that no person accessary to the Engage-
ment, which was followed by the invasion, " be em-
•ployed in any public place or trust whatsoever." Of
course there was no alternative but to concede these
terms. In fact they were what the Government of
Scotland vehemently desired ; but that they were
pressed by Cromwell made it all the more likely that
they would be put in full force. Oa the other hand, he
did his new allies the compliment of taking or renew-
ing the Covenant along with them. He was feasted
with great pomp in " the High Parliament House." ^
Argyle and he had much opportunity of conference ;
and the Cavaliers even suspected that the tragic
drama to be presently enacted, with much more
dark work, was then concerted between these subtle
spirits.
The Estates assembled in the beginning of January
1649. The predominant party were able carefully
to weed the new Parliament of the Engagement ele-
ment. Their chief business was to give full effect to
the bargain with Cromwell, by excluding from public
office all who had been concerned in the Engage-
ment. Two statutes, one of them known in history
as the " Act of Classes," confirmed this disqualification,
and at the same time reversed much of the business
transacted by recent Parliaments and by the Commit-
tee of Estates.
Four " classes" of men are defined according to their
conduct as disqualified from sitting in Parliament or
^ Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 223 el seq.
246 CHARLES I.
holding any public office for a period measured by
their iniquities. They include all Malignants or
enemies of the Covenant, and all those who j)roved
themselves its false friends by either furthering or
assenting to the Engagement. The fourth class was
of a general and comprehensive character, including
all men " given to uncleanness, bribery, swearing,
drunkenness, or deceiving, or are otherwise openly
profane and grossly scandalous in their conversation,
and who neglect the worship of God in their families."
Had these Acts been passed in the General Assem-
bly instead of the Estates, they could not have done
more to throw the country into the hands of the
clergy. One of the grounds of criminality in those
who went with the Engagement was, that the General
Assembly had issued a declaration maintaining " the
unlawfulness of the said Engagement," and " denounc-
ing God's judgment against it," which denunciation
" was seconded so speedily and immediately by God's
own hand " in the defeat of the Scots army. Then the
restoration of those belonging to " the classes," after
their period of probation, was to be contingent on their
giving satisfaction to the judicatories of the Kirk.^
It is not wonderful that at this time we hear of
statesmen sitting for lengthened periods on the stool
of repentance, and parish ministers re-enacting the
part of Hildebrand with the emperor.^
' " Act repealing all Acts of Parliament or Committee made for the
late unlawful Engagement, and ratifying the protestation and opposition
against the same" (Acts, vi. 341) ; and " The Act of Classes for purging
the judicatories and other places of public trust " (ibid., 352).
' " To remember how with abundance of tears the Lord Chancellor
[Loudon] made his repentance in the East Church of Edinburgh, declar-
ing so much of his former honest dealing with the people as he well
ACT OF CLASSES, 1 649. 247
These Acts are long discursive papers, unlike the
general substance of the Scottish statute-book, and
bearing more resemblance to the work of the ecclesi-
astical than of the civil power. Through all the wild
work of the period, the utterances of the Legislature
and the supreme tribunals generally preserve a grave
decorum ; but these Acts are full of vehement raving.
They are a testimony as well as a law, and a song of
triumph over a beaten enemy infused through both ;
in this capacity they refer to the defeat of a Scots
knew every one understood ; and this was done to please some of the
leading ministers, who were now leading this penitent in triumph, and
causing him sing peccavi to blear the eyes of the commons." — Balfour, iii.
395. So far the Lord Lyon. A stranger who had opportunities for
noticing affairs in Scotland a few months later, tells how several of the
more eminent of the Engagers " went from Court, and have by their
several ways endeavoured to be reconciled to the Kirk and State, and
have had their various success; for Duke Hamilton, notwithstanding any
submission he could make, was not permitted to stay above fourteen
days at his own house, but was forced to retreat into the Isle of Arran.
The Earl of Lauderdale had the favour to stay at home, but not to come
to Court. The Earl of Dunfermline was at first admitted to stay at
home, then to give satisfaction for being in the late wicked and unlaw-
ful Engagement, as they call it, sitting in his own seat in Dunfermline,
and not in sackcloth on the stool of repentance at Edinburgh, as did the
Earl of Crawford Lyndsay at the same time — but the reason is appar-
ent, the one being Argyle's creature, the other Hamilton's brother-in-
law ; and, lastly, to be permitted to come to Court and to wait gentle-
man of the bedchaml-ier. What became of the Earl of Carnwath j'ou
shall hear shortly. The Earl of Brainford [?] returned to his friends;
and after going to Edinbui-gh and desiring to be reconciled to the Kirk,
he waited five days before he could deliver his petition. At length he
wave it to one of those high priests, by whom it was carried in, and
beinc read, after much scof&ng at his titles, answer was returned him,
that as he behaved himself they would in time take his desires into con-
sideration."— Sir Edward Walker's Joiirnal, 159. What happened to
Carnwath was, that being driven from the presence of Charles II. when
in Scotland by Mr Wood, a minister, one of the commissioners to the
Hague, " and coming to him, said, ' God, I hope, will forgive me ; will
not you ? ' But ]Mr Wood turned from him in disdain, giving him never
a word."— Ibid., 161.
248 CHARLES I.
by an English army as something like a special
mercy. -^
These Acts were probably prepared by Warriston,
who, by his ascetic life, his pious conversation, and
his untiring zeal in ecclesiastical work, proved himself
to be one of the few laymen of that period to whom
the Covenant was more than a mere political power.
We know that he made a notable speech on the
occasion, and the Act itself was probably modelled on
what he said.^
This aifair of the Engagement and the Act of
Classes might afford some curious matter to any in-
quirer not under an obligation to measure the par-
ticularity of detail with the ultimate importance of
events. Contemporary literature and correspondence
would make this stage in the current of events seem
as important as the promulgation of the Covenant or
the march of Leslie's army into England. It seemed
as if the great cause, which appeared to falter, had
1 Among the iniquities of the Engagers are, that they "led out a
forced multitude to slaughter or slavery with so great reproach and dis-
gTace to the nation, and occasioned a powerful army to enter the howels
of this kingdom in pursuit of their enemies who had invaded England,
to the great endangerment of this kingdom, and so laying the land open,
and making it liable to the guilt and misery of an unjust and offensive
war, drawing down God's judgments, and exposing us and our posterity
to invasion from ovir neighbour kingdom, if God in His providence had
not remedied the same." Farther, the protestations of the clergy were
confirmed " by God's O'viTi hand," " in the defeat of that army and their
overthrow in England with their associates in England."
^ " This day the Marquis of Argyle had a very long speech, consisting
of five heads, which he called the breaking of the Malignants' teeth, and
he who came after him (Warriston, viz.) would break their jaws."
" Warriston, the king's advocate, after the Marquis of Argyle had
ended, read a speech two hours in length off his paper, being an ex-
planation of Argyle's five heads of teeth, as he named them, with the
answering of such objects he thought the prime Engagers would make
in their own defence." — Balfour, iii. 377.
EXECUTION OF CHARLES I., 1649. 249
renewed its strength. The Lord was showing again
the face which He had withdrawn ; the enemy was
conquered, and the work of bringing the three king-
doms to Covenanted reformation was to revive and go
on to its triumphant end. There seems to have been
among the zealots who had got possession of the
Estates an utter unconsciousness that a power was
arising destined to overwhelm them and their policy.
While Warriston was proclaiming the triumph of his
party and the reign of righteousness, the High Court
of Justice was beginning its work in Westminster
Hall. On the 30th of January 1649, King Charles I.
was beheaded. With the High Court of Justice by
which he was tried and condemned Scotland had
no concern. On England lay the responsibility of the
act, and with those who write the history of the
England of that day lies the responsibility of passing
historical judgment on it. It must suffice on the pre-
sent occasion to note some points of difference between
political conditions in England and in Scotland in-
tiuencing the effect which the event had on public
feeling in Scotland.
In Scotland there was no republican party. The
opponents of the king only desired to bring him to
reason. They would not have put him to death, nor
would they approve of the act. It was perhaps, how-
ever, hardly to them that deed of awful sacrilege which
it was in the eyes of the English Eoyalists. It seems
on the whole, indeed, to have been considered an event
rather fortunate in itself, that the regicides of England
should have disposed of a king so obstinate and so
tricky, making way for an unsophisticated youth who
might be trained in the right path. It was perhaps
250 CHARLES I.
the way in wliich God thouglit fit to further the cause
of the Covenant and of righteousness, that the stum-
bling-block should be removed by the hands of these
English sectaries and latitudinarians. They them-
selves were all for the monarchy — the old Scots
monarchy which had existed for more than a thousand
years. But they had no favour for this particular
monarch ; and without calling him a saint and martyr,
or announcing that his fate had stricken many of his
faithful people with death or insanity, they accepted
of his son as the legitimate successor to the crown of
Eobert Bruce.
Distance from the scene of the tragedy concurred,
with other incidental matters, to render the excitement
naturally accompanying such an event less powerful
in Scotland than in England. But there was another
emphatic difference between the two countries. To
the actors on the public stage in Scotland the long
contest had been on purely public grounds, religious
or political. It had not become, as in England, a per-
sonal struggle for life or death. In estimating the
motives of those chiefly concerned in the event, this
should ever be remembered. The long dangerous
game of fast-and-loose that had been played with
those who, from the opening of the Long Parliament,
had been in one shape or other at enmity Avith the
Court, convinced them that no treaty or other adjust-
ment or promise would make their lives secure while
the king lived. In Scotland, on the other hand, the
party opposed to him — it might be more correct to
say the party ojDposed to his government — had all
along a preponderance so overwhelming that the
leaders of it had nothing personally to fear. There
PROCLAMATION OF CHARLES IL, 1649. 25 1
are many testimonies to this, but one is conclusive,
that while the balance was vibrating between the two
sides in England, the Scots lent their army to their
friends of the Parliamentary party ; and it was only
while this army was absent on duty elsewhere that
the Cavalier party were able to take the field.
On the 5th of February, immediately after the
ncAvs of the execution had reached Edinburgh, Charles
II. was solemnly proclaimed at the cross as " King
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland." ^ As we
shall presently see, however, he was not permitted
to enter on duty until he became an assured Cove-
nanter.
1 Balfour, iii. 383.
CHAPTER LXXV.
EXECUTION OF HAMILTON AND HUNTLY — MONTROSE's PROJECT IN
THE HIGHLANDS — ITS FAILURE HIS CAPTURE AND EXECUTION
THE COMMISSIONERS WITH CHARLES II. IN HOLLAND — NE-
GOTIATIONS FOR THE COVENANT IN SCOTLAND CROMWELL'S
INVASION KING CHARLES AND THE COVENANTERS THE COM-
PULSORY TESTS — BECOMES A COVENANTED KING CROMWELL
AND LESLIE THE BATTLE OF DUNBAR — ITS CONCLUSIVE IN-
FLUENCE CROMWELL AND THE COVENANTING PARTY THE
START THE CORONATION THE MARCH INTO ENGLAND THE
BATTLE OF WORCESTER TAKING OF THE SCOTS FORTRESSES —
FATE OF DUNDEE — MONK — ORGANISATION OF GOVERNMENT IN
SCOTLAND COURTS OF LAW — CLOSING OF THE GENERAL AS-
SEMBLY INCORPORATING UNION NAVIGATION LAWS AND FREE-
TRADE — ABOLITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM REPORT ON THE
SHIPPING AND REVENUE OF SCOTLAND — GLENCAIRN's EXPEDI-
TION— CONCLUSION OF THE PROTECTORATE.
The king's execution was followed by another nearly
as important to Scotland. The Duke of Hamilton
was arraigned before the same High Court of Justice
which had just dealt with the king. His character and
the motives of his actions were throughout involved in
a strange mystery ; and it seemed to be the fate of his
house ever to be an enigma, whether from the actual
character of the men themselves, or the suspicions
EXECUTION OF HAMILTON, 1649. 253
which the world naturally held about the motives of
those who were by pedigree so peculiarly situated.^
It is an incident which scarcely connects itself with
wider historical events, that he was for some time
under such suspicion at Court, that he was detained
in one prison after another, until in 1646, after nearly
two years of such detention, he was released from St
Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, when it was taken by
the Parliamentary army. His arraignment was for
the invasion ending in the treaty of Uttoxeter. The
indictment furnishes a touch of curious pedantry in
calling him by no other name than Earl of Cambridge
— an English title conferred on him when he was raised
in 1643 from a marquisate to a dukedom. The charge
against the Earl of Cambridge was, that he had traitor-
ously invaded England in hostile manner, " and levied
war to assist the king against the kingdom and people
of England ; and had committed sundry murders, out-
rages, rapines, wastes, and spoils upon the said people."
He pleaded that he had acted by command of the
supreme authority of his own country, Scotland — an
independent kingdom. Further, that he was born
before the union of the crowns, and as he had not the
privileges, so he had not the responsibilities, of an
English subject. Being thus a foreign invader, he
had capitulated according to the usages of war between
enemies, and had been accepted to quarter. He there-
fore held that every English tribunal was bound by
the articles of the treaty of Uttoxeter, which promised
safety to his life. There was much arguing on these
pleas, which of course came to nothing. It may be
noted, that had his trial been in Scotland, he would,
' See above, chap. Ixx.
254 COMMONWEALTH.
according to usage, have probably pleaded that he
was acting for the king. But to plead such authority
before the tribunal which had just put that king
to death, would have been a stretch even on the
habitual use to which his enemies applied the sanc-
tion of his name. Hamilton was executed on the
9th of March 1649, meeting his fate with heroic
calmness.^
A third death, which at other times would have held
a conspicuous place among events in Scotland, comes,
like Hamilton's, as a mere secondary incident, over-
shadowed by the great tragedy of the day. The Com-
mittee of Estates had got possession of their steady
and long-sought enemy Huntly early in March of
1647. Just a week after the execution of Hamilton —
on the 16th of March 1649 — he was brought to trial.
Nothing could be more easily proved tha.n his " trea-
son " before those who counted war in the king's name
against the Covenant to be treason, and he was be-
headed on the 22d. Had the Committee of Estates
thirsted for the king's blood, the death of his cham-
pion would have been the natural result of an excite-
ment born of sanguinary sympathies. Professing, as
they did, to hold the king's execution as a crime, one
would have naturally expected that the event would
give a pause to their hostile vehemence ; but they
were not to be influenced by sympathies or shadows,
and would do their own work, whatever the rest of
the world might be about.
To the modified character of the grief and resent-
ment bestowed by the Scots on the fate of the king,
there was at least one exception. Since the time
1 State Trials, iv. 1155.
CAPTURE AND EXECUTION OF MONTROSE, 1649. 255
when Montrose sliowed in his brilliant little campaign
how much he could accomplish with small means, his
ardour had been cherished in the sunshine of the
Court. He was urged by the young prince, in no
generous or even upright spirit, as we shall find, to
strike for the cause of royalty. But his acts were less
those of a man struggling for a living cause with
means offering probable success, than the desperate
efforts of one stricken with grief and rage. As he
proclaimed in some passionate verses written for the
occasion, he went as the avenger of wrong and the
champion of the fame of the illustrious victim. He
followed the old impulse of chivalry in so far as it
disdained any estimate of the capacity to accomplish
a design, but rushed to the hopeless charge as a type
of the champion's courage and devotion. There was
something in the invasion of Scotland now undertaken
by him so wild and unpractical, that in its utter desti-
tution of prudent selfishness it did something to wipe
away whatever stains of cruelty or treachery have
tended to blot his name. His proj ect was inaugurated by
much fussy diplomacy, professing to discuss the great
assistance in men, money, and arms to be provided by
foreign powers. It is said that the bulk of the foreign
troops put at his command were lost by shipwreck.
However it might be, the end of the vast announce-
ments of preparation was, that he reached Orkney
with some seven hundred men, chiefly from Holstein
and Hamburg, and fifteen hundred stand of arms
given him by the Queen of Sweden. He was not
likely to find among the Orcadians much indignation
about the fate of a King in London, or even to find
many who had ever heard of it. What recruits,
256 COi\niONWEALTH.
therefore, he obtained among them were probably
pressed in to serve by the foreigners.
Thus slenderly attended, he passed to the mainland.
If, as some unwise people told him, he would find the
north all in a ferment and eager to rush to his stand-
ard, he was cruelly disappointed. An overwhelming
foi'ce was sent against him under Leslie. Had the
two forces met, there had been no material for a battle ;
but it happened that the little band under Montrose
only encountered a small detachment under Strachan.
The place where they met was Invercharron, on the
northern border of Ross-shire, to the westward of the
present railway-station of Bonar Bridge. Montrose
seems to have had the larger force of the two ; but it
was incongruously made up of foreigners, undrilled
Orcadians, and just a sprinkling of gentlemen Cava-
liers trained in the civil wars. He tried to gain a pass,
where he might have held out until the main body of
his enemies arrived, but his party was broken and dis-
persed before he reached it. He escaped in the con-
fusion, and, turning northwards, swam the Kyle, an
estuary separating Ross from Sutherland, and wandered
up Strath Oikil into the higher mountain-ranges of
the west. He was accompanied by Lord Kinnoul,
and both were disguised as inhabitants of the country.
They suffered from hunger and from cold, for April
was not yet over ; and as Kinnoul never reappeared,
he no doubt died of his miseries. Montrose himself
was taken by Macleod of Assynt, at the head of a
party in search of him.
He Avas removed to Edinburgh, where of course he
had to expect no mercy. It is between those who
remain true to a cause and those who break from it
EXECUTION OF MONTROSE, 1650. 257
tliat political hatred finds growth for its direst strength.
The more thorough the refugee's belief in the honesty
of his motives, the deeper is his enmity against his old
companions. They and their cause have bitterly de-
ceived him. He joined it, believing that it would
work to certain good results beloved of his own heart ;
but he has found that he was wrong in that belief,
and the guilt all lies on those whom he has cast off.
They in their turn give hate for hate. The deserter,
traitor, renegade, apostate, or whatever other name he
may be called by, has no claim to the courtesies due
to the consistent and natural enemy. To Huntly,
Haddo, Airlie, and their kind. Papists and Prelatists,
something was due that could not be granted to him
who had stood foremost for the Covenant, and had
banded a horde of cut-throat savages against the Cove-
nanters. He might plead conscientious conviction ;
he might say he went with his friends of the Cove-
nant until he found them choosing devious courses,
— still he was the man who had appeared foremost
among the children of God, and was now serving
under his true master the devil.
In the natural course of political cause and effect,
death was his portion ; and it is an idle waste of words
to reproach those who, in fulfilling that fate, could
not only justify themselves, but plead the command
of political duty. It is likely enough that the tragedy
was not performed in good taste, and that ribaldries
and humiliations unsuited to so solemn an occasion
were heaped upon the victim. But these are accusa-
tions about which, as about floating scandals, it is well
not to indulge in much comment and discussion. To
cast humiliation on the fallen enemy was an ungrace-
VOL. VII. E
258 COMMONWEALTH.
ful habit of the day in which the Covenanters took
their Ml share. But to exaggerate, and sometimes to
invent, stories of such humiliations, was another prac-
tice of the age, and it is sometimes well to leave the
one to neutralise the other.
We have official acknowledgment of another and
more solemn kind of persecution inflicted by those
who believed themselves to be engaged in a work of
love and duty. Thus it is recorded how " the com-
mission of the General Assembly doth appoint Messrs
David Dickson, James Durham, James Guthry, Eobert
Trail, Hugh Mackail, to attend upon James Graham
when he is entered in ward and upon the scaffold, and
deal with him to bring him to repentance, with power
to them to release him from excommunication if so be
he shall subscribe the declaration condescended upon
by the commission, containing an acknowledgment of
his heinous and gross offences, — otherwise that they
should not relax him." ^ The inquisitive "Wodrow
got from one who was present during the infliction
so decreed a few notes of what ]3assed. Among the
heads of admonition and remonstrance were : " Some-
what of his natural temper, which was aspiring and
lofty;" "his personal vices, which were too notorious;"
" his taking Irish and Popish rebels and cut-throats by
the hand, to make use of against his own country-
men." He did not give these divines satisfaction,
and they pronounced their j udgment through Guthrie,
who said : "As we were appointed by the commission
of the General Assembly to confer with you, and
bring you, if it could be attained, to some sense of
your guilt, so we had, if we had found you penitent,
^ Record cited, Napier's Life and Times, 482.
EXECUTION OF MONTROSE, 1650. 259
power from the said commission to relax you from
the excommunication under 'whicli you lie. But now,
since we find it far otherwise with you, and that you
maintain your former course, and all things for which
that sentence is passed upon you, we must with sad
hearts leave you under the same until the judgment
of the great God, under the fearful impression of that
which is bound on earth God will bind in heaven." ^
Notorious as the actions for which he was to suffer
were, they had to be dealt with in form of law by the
civil tribunal. In ordinary circumstances there would
have been an indictment with a circumstantial history
of the several acts of war, treason, and slaughter ; and
evidence would have been extracted at length to
prove that the things had been done, and to identify
" the said James Graham " as a person concerned in
the doing of them. But this pedantry was obviated
by another and a shorter. He had already been in-
dicted to stand trial before the Estates for his achieve-
ments in 1645. He had not appeared at the bar,
and was accordingly outlawed and forfeited. This,
unless the Estates chose to withdraw the forfeiture,
left nothing to be done but the adjustment of the
sentence. It saves the necessity of narrating the
method of his execution, to give it in the words of an
"Act ordaining James Graham to be brought from the
Watergate on a cart bareheaded, the hangman in his
livery covered, riding on the horse that draws the
cart — the prisoner to be bound to the cart with a
rope — to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and from thence
' Wodrow Analecta, i. 162. Both Guthrie, who pronounced the sen-
tence, and his companion Mackail, had afterwards to appear as martyrs
on the other side.
26o COMMONWEALTH.
to be brought to tbe Parliament House, and there, in
the place of delinquents, on his knees, to receive his
sentence — viz., to be hanged on a gibbet at the cross
of Edinburgh, with his book and declaration tied in a
rope about his neck, and there to hang for the space
of three hours until he be dead ; and thereafter to be
cut down by the hangman, his head, hands, and legs
to be cut off and distributed as follows — viz., his
head to be affixed on an iron pin, and set on the pin-
nacle of the west gavel of the new prison of Edin-
burgh ; one hand to be set on the port of Perth, the
other on the port of Stirling ; one leg and foot on
the port of Aberdeen, the other on the port of Glas-
gow. If he was at his death penitent and relaxed
from excommunication, then the trunk of his body to
be interred by pioneers in the Greyfriars', otherwise
to be interred in the Burrow Muir by the hangman's
men under the gallows." ^ He was not relaxed from
excommunication. The sentence was executed on the
25th of May in the High Street of Edinburgh.^
^ Balfour's Annals, Works, iv. 12. The book to be tied by a rope about
his neck was the history of liis triumphs, by his chaplain. Bishop
Wishart, published in 1648 in Paris : ' De Rebus, auspiciis Caroli Dei
gratia ^IaL;na! Britannia Kegis, sub imperio illustrissimi Jacobi Moutis-
rosarum ^larchionis Commentarius.'
- To know that there is an account of the last scene from the pen of
Argyle himself may excite a curiosity scarcely to be justified by its
perusal. It is written on the very day to his nephew, afterwards his
son-in-law, Lord Lothian. The event chiefly engrossing his attention is
the birth of a daughter, and he is weary with watching during the
critical period. Then he notes how her " birthday is remarkable in the
tragic end of James Graham at the cross " : " He got some resolution
after he came here how to go out of this world ; but nothing at all how
to enter into another, not so much as once humbling himself to pray at
all upon the scaffold, nor saying anytliing on it that he had not repeated
many times before when the ministers were with him. For what may
concern the public I leave it to the public papers and Mr James Dai-
ry mple's relation." — Note to Kirkton's History, 124; Lothian Papers.
TREATY WITH CHARLES II., 1650. 261
Ou the 17tli of March certain commissioners had
sailed from Kirkcaldy to confer with the young king
in Holland. There was one peer, Lord Cassilis, who
^vith the Laird of Brodie, Provost Jaffery of Aberdeen,
and the provost of the small burgh of Irvine, in A}-r-
shire, represented the Estates. The Church was re-
presented by Eobert Baillie, another minister, and
a ruling elder. This deputation was not affluently
adorned by rank and station, and perhaps rather too
closely represented the position of the ruling power.
But they were high in confidence and singleness of
purpose. The Government represented by them had
been signally purified, and it was no matter that the
purification had cut off some two-thirds of its rank,
talent, and territorial influence, with a large share of
its fighting power. So they went to the Hague with
a " readiness to espouse the king's cause, if he first
will espouse God's cause." ^ This, put more specifi-
cally, meant that he should take the Covenant with
its companion testimonies, engage to do his utmost
to enforce the whole Covenanting system over Eng-
land and Ireland, and join in denouncing the Engage-
ment.
A miscellaneous body of sympathisers and sup-
porters naturally crowded about the young prince —
Cavaliers from England and Scotland, with a few of
those fresh outcasts the Engagers. For rank and
title they were a brilliant court, yet the humble group
who came from Scotland were the only men among
them who represented any established government.
These began their mission somewhat skilfully in a
speech by the accomplished Baillie, containing matter
^ Biiillie's Letters, iii. 75.
262 COMMONWEALTH.
that must liavc been accc.ptaWo. " Wo do dcclan;,"
lie said, " wliat in our own brcant often we have felt,
and generally in tlie people among whom we live
have seen witli our eyes, ane mournl'ul sorrow for that
cxeci'aljlc and tragie j)aJTicide, winch, tliough all men
on earth should jiass over un(|uesti()ried, yet wo
nothing doubt but tiic great Judge of the world will
arise and plead against every one, of what condition
soever, who have been either authors or actors, or
cons( inters or approvers, of that hardly expressible
crime, which stamps and stigmatises with a new and
before unseen chara,cter of infamy tlie face of the
whole generation of sectaries and their adherents
from whose hearts and hands that vilest villany did
proceed." ^
Avoiding disa,grceable3 at this first interview, they
left with liim a letter from the commission of
Ass(!mbly which might gra,dually and gently unfold
their ultimate objects, and delivercsd to him the raw
matei-ial of future discussion — " the National Covenant,
the Solemn I^eaguc and (Jovcrijint, the Directory, the
Confession of 1^'aith, the Catechise, the Proitositions
of Government, bound together in a book so handsome
as we could get thcm."^
The assassination of Dorislaus, and the dark suspi-
cions thrown by it on those who were deep in the
confidence of the prince, disj)erscd tlie little court at
the Hague. After an interval of restlessness it settled
down at Bnjda, where he was again in a position to
hear terms by the Government of Scotland. Their
propositions were as distinct and absolute as ever.
Diplomacy, in the usual acceptation of the tci-m, there
1 JiaiUic'H LcjUom, ill. 85. ' Ibid., 87.
CHARLES II. IN SCOTLAND, 1650. 263
was none — whatever tlie king miglit say, the ultimate
answer resolved itself into yea or nay. With a sort of
cheerful carelessness he adopted the affirmative. To
every proposition setting down in the hardest and
least ambiguous words their rigid terms, there was
set down, " His majesty doth consent to this whole
proposition in ter minis." '^ He was at the same time
hounding ^Montrose out on his expedition, and telling
him not to believe a word of any rumour that he was
to accept of the Covenant. His iustruction was : " AYe
require and authorise you to proceed vigorously in
your undertakino', and to act in all thino-s in order to
it as you shall judge most necessary for the support
thereof and for our service in that way."" There was
such a banishment of all deliberation, such a prompt
recklessness in this double-dealing, that it partook of
the nature of a capricious escapade when compared
with the solemn duplicit)- of his father.
Escaping some danger from the cruisers of the
Eepublic, the prince arrived at the mouth of the Spoy
on the 3d of July. Before he was permitted to
land, we are told that " his majesty signed both the
Covenants, Xational and Solemn, and had notable
sermons and exhortations made unto him by the
ministers to persevere therein."^ He found protection
in Huntly's Castle of Gight, where, although its
master had just been put to death, there was a
garrison. He went on by Aberdeen to the Earl
Marischal's fortress at Dunnottar, and so by Dundee
and St Andrews to Falkland Palace. Due investiga-
tion having been made into the character of a gToup
' Thnrloe's State Papers, L 147. " Clarendon's State Papers.
3 Sir Edward Walker's Journal, 159.
264 COMMONWEALTH.
of courtiers who attended the prince, it was discovered
with alarm that they consisted of English Malignants,
and of Scots who were either JMalignants or Engagers.
They were all dispersed with the exception of a small
select group. Among these was Buckingham — a
singular exception to the general disqualiiication,
suggesting that he had successfully tried his powers
of mimicry, and passed himself oif as a child of
grace.
This royal progress, sordid and unhopeful tliough it
might be, was sufficient to alarm the Council of State
at AVhitehall, and it was determined to send a force
under Cromwell to stop it. On the 16th of July he
crossed the Tweed with an army of sixteen thousand
men, trained veterans, and strong in artillery and
cavalry. Cromwell was fresh from his bloody career
in Ireland. We now know that he would not have
dealt with the Lowland Scots as with the Celts — the
etiquette of war forbade it. But the fame of the acts
he had committed naturally spread terror among the
peasantry not fully instructed in the exclusion of a
population like the Irish from the courtesies of war.
The general alarm joining with a spirit of loyalty,
and a strong antipathy to the " sectaries," j)roduced
perhaps the oddest effect ever occasioned by conditions
of danger. A large body had flocked, as of old, to the
national standard. Among these it was discovered by
the predominant party that there were many Malig-
nants and other persons excluded by the Act of
Classes. They must be rid of these if their enterprise
was not to be fundamentally cursed. Thus they
drove away, as an astonished looker-on tells us, four
thousand men, and these, as old experienced soldiers.
Cromwell's invasion, 1650. 265
the best in their army.^ After this purification they
experienced such relief and self-reliance as a man
heretofore in evil health may feel when his constitu-
tion has proved sound enough to discard some depress-
ing morbid symptom. Some territorial potentates
offered to bring forth their followers as independent
auxiliaries, but as they belonged to the excluded
classes their co-operation was sternly abjured. An-
other element of danger, too, must be removed, for the
absolute purification of that host — the young man
Charles Stewart. True, they had engaged with him
to be their Covenanted kins;, and it mig-ht be said that
they were going to fight for his cause. But a heavy
burden lay upon his race in the sins of his father and
the idolatry of his mother. For himself, he had not
yet been tried. It might be that he was to become
the king who would rule over them. But in the mean
time, when God was to decide between them and the
sectaries, it was not safe to retain such a possible
cause of wrath in their camp, and he was compelled
to retire.
Old Leven was commander of the army, but so far
as the arm of the flesh was entitled to reliance it was
on his nephew David. The strategy adopted was to
make the Border districts a desert, as in the old wars
with England ; and the terror following Cromwell's
Irish war made it easy to get the people to co-operate
in such a policy. It was easy to persuade all of them
who were sound Covenanters that there could be no
madness or villany of which the army " of sectaries
and blasphemers" was incapable ; and those of the
Borderers who were Cavaliers and Royalists would
1 Walker, 165.
266 COMMONWEALTH.
scarcely welcome the invaders. It was to no purpose
tliat the general issued a proclamation " to all that
are saints and partakers of the faith of God's elect
in Scotland "■ — this would only pass for blasphemous
mockery in those that were coming to strike the real
saints with the edge of the sword. The Scots might
have easily fortified Cockburnspath and the other deep
gorges running from the Lammermuir Hills to the
sea, but Cromwell was too prompt for them. Never
in any of the invasions of Scotland was this strong
position held — a position about which Cromwell him-
self expressively, though not in very good English,
said, " Ten men to hinder is better than forty to
make." It afforded this advantage, that an army
crossing the flat elevated plain through which these
gorges cut, Avould, if they were held by ever so small
a force, have to make a flank-march over a tract of
hill and moorland where there were no roads. For
the first time we hear, after Cromwell had passed them,
of these points of defence being guarded, and it was
for the purpose, rendered unnecessary, of intercepting
his retreat back to England.
Of the two armies thus drawing to a conclusion
with each other, the one did not entirely consist of Eng-
lishmen or the other of Scotsmen; but the spirit of
England and Scotland were severally represented in
them. In both there was much of what might be
called piety, zeal, or fanaticism, according to the hu-
mour of the person criticising ; and some maintained
that in both there was a strong leaven of hypocrisy.
The seriously religious, both in England and Scotland,
were broken up into various groujjs, with elements of
difference great or small. But the effect of this diver-
Cromwell's invasion, 1650. 267
gence was curiously different in the two countries. In
Scotland one party was strong enough to stand aloof,
taking all the power of Church, State, and army into
its hands, and driving forth all who would not accept
its articles of faith and Church o-overnmeut to the
utmost. In Euo-land, on the other hand, the " bound-
less toleration" ao;ainst which the Scots railed so
vehemently, united all together in one compact mass
for civil and military purposes.
The contest that was becoming inevitable was
eminently critical. Had the issue of the battle been
reversed, the change on the face of history is not
exactly to be defined ; but that it would have been a
great change is beyond a doubt. It was a crisis on
which mighty interests centred. Two generals who
had never been beaten were to face each other, and
the character of invincibility was inevitably to be lost
by one of them. Such was the position in a mere
human and worldly sense, but to the far-seeing the
issues were infinitely grander. Of two hosts, each
professing to be the Lord's chosen people, the time
was at hand when He should choose between them by
giving the victory to His own. There was no doubt
that the victors would settle the question in their own
favour, however the other party might take their
defeat.
That they might be prepared for this ordeal, the
Scots continued earnest in their purification, and the
discharge from their host of all dangerous elements.
They had already got rid of a few thousand soldiers
whose faith was doubtful. But they were in sore
perplexity touching the young man Charles Stewart^
as not knowing what might be the influence on them-
268 COMMONWEALTH.
selves of his dubious early life, the ecclesiastical sins
of his father, aud his mother's idolatry. A proclama-
tiou had been issued in his name, in which he pro-
mised to fulfil all that ever had been demanded of his
father, announcing that " the Lord hath been pleased
in His gracious goodness and tender mercy to discover
to his majesty the great evil of the ways wherein he
hath been formerly led by wicked counsel." ^
Against this document, issued without his consent,
he demurred. There was immediate indignation and
alarm in the camp. It was a question whether the
army should break up and disperse, or make terms
with the sectaries. They sent a "remonstrance and
supplication" to the Committee of Estates, setting
forth that, "being sensible of the imputation laid
upon the kingdom and army as if they espoused the
Malignant quarrel and interest, and considering that
at this time we are more especially concerned in it
than others, beiuo- in the Lord's streno'th to take our
lives in our hands and hazard all that is dear unto us
by engaging against the present enemy, who in a
hostile Avay hath invaded this kingdom, contrary to
all bonds of covenants and treaties, — we conceive it our
duty to make it manifest to their honours and all the
world that we do not own any Malignant quarrel or
interest of any person or j)ersons whatsoever, but that
by the assistance of the Lord we resolve to fight
merely upon the former grounds and principles in
defence of the cause of Covenant and kingdom." Still
the old decorum was preserved of abstaining from
accusation against royalty itself, and charging all on
pernicious counsel. They desired the accomplish-
1 Walker, 163.
THE COVENANTERS AND CHARLES II., 1650. 269
ment of " what remains in the army undone in rela-
tion to purging," " that God be no more provoked
by countenancing or sparing of them, lest the Lord
should desert us and cause us to partake with them
in their judgments." ^
A declaration was prepared, in which all that had
offended the young king in the proclamation was set
forth more broadly and offensively. This he must sign.
It was noticed at the time, that it was presented to him
in that same Gowrie House Avhere his grandfather had
encountered so much peril. His advisers bade him
sign it at once — sign everything. They were like
persons in the hands of a set of madmen. He must
do whatever he was bidden or all was lost. Some
few expressions were permitted to be altered so far
as to soften their accusative tenor and bring them
into the category of calamities rather than crimes.
By a very happy thought a sentence was inscribed
attributing the misfortunes which had befallen the
royal house as well as the faithful kingdom of Scot-
land to the malice of the sectaries.
The " declaration " is a lengthy document, for it
was the work of men determined to leave nothins'
ambiguous or uncertain. Whoever accepted it could
never afterwards plead that he had misinterpreted its
full scope. The preamble or text, setting forth the
principle to which the working details tended, was in
these words : " He doth now detest and abhor all
Popery, superstition, and idolatry, together with Pre-
lacy, and all errors, heresy, schism, and profaneness ;
and resolves not to tolerate, much less allow of those
in any part of his majesty's dominions, but to oppose
1 Walker, 167, 368.
270 COMMONWEALTH.
himself thereto, and endeavour the extwpation thereof
to the utmost of his power." ^ As to the army of
sectaries now approaching, the Committee of Estates
and the Assembly "having sufficiently laid open
public dangers and duties both upon the right hand
and upon the left, it is not needful for his majesty to
add anything thereto except that in those things he
doth commend and approve them, and that he resolves
to live and die with them and his loyal subjects in
prosecution of the ends of the Covenant." ^
One small ceremony yet remained to fill the cup.
The king having signed all the protestations and ob-
jurgations presented to him, it was needful for him to
express how he was " desirous to be humbled for the
sins of the royal family and for his own sins, that God
may be reconciled unto him ; and that he may give
evidence of his real loathing of his former ways, and
of his sincerity in his owning the cause of God and
the work of reformation." ^ To this desirable end a
public day of fasting and humiliation was to be held,
and he was to be the hero of the occasion.
In the grotesque audacity of such professions we
can imagine that there must have been something
infinitely droll and exhilarating to such spirits as
Buckingham and Wilmot, when they discussed it in
after-times, away from that dreary land where their
mirthful communings with the prince were rudely re-
strained. As for him, there was just one element of
sincerity planted in his heart by reflecting on the part
he had been induced to play — a sincere detestation of
those who had driven him to such humiliation.
And after all was done, the pui'gation was not so
1 Walker, 172. " Ibid., 175. » Ibid., 178.
THE COVENANTERS AND CHARLES II., 1650. 271
complete as to make a full intercommuning safe.
They would not have the young man Charles Stewart
within their host at the critical moment. Their feel-
ing seems to have been, that although all were false,
they might be justified in holding it to be true until
they found evidence to the contrary — ^justified in not
departing from the course they had adopted in resist-
ing the sectaries with a view of supporting him if he
continued true ; but the having him, possibly false
and perjured, in their actual host on the day of battle,
might be too dangerous — it would be tempting the
vengeance of heaven too rashly.^ They were like
men who theoretically believe an arrangement to be
safe, but shrink when they have to trust their lives to
it. Therefore he was banished from the army and
detained in courteous restraint in Dunfermline. Be-
hind all these scrupulous arrangements there lingered
a suspicion that the " purgation " of the Scots army
was far aAvay from completeness. Cromwell's men
were united in a zealous purpose, as that army had
been which Leslie carried across the Tweed ten years
1 Cromwell tells us how " some of the honestest in the army among
the Scots did profess hefore the fight that they did not believe their
king in his declaration ; and it's most evident he did sign it with as
much reluctancy and so much against his heart as could be, and yet
they venture their lives for him on this account, and publish this declara-
tion to the world to be believed as the act of a person converted, when
in their hearts they know he abhorred the doing of it and means it not."
• — Carlyle, ii. 197. He made a general charge against the Estates, that
their difficulties arose " by espousing your king's interest, and taking
into your bosom that person in whom, notwithstanding what hath or
may be said to the contrary, that which is really Malignancy, and all
Mali"nants do centre ; against whose family the Lord hath so eminently
witnessed for blood-guiltiness, not to be done away by such hypocritical
and formal shows of repentance as are expressed in his late declaration."
—Ibid., 222.
2/2 COMMONWEALTH.
earlier. The long contest had worn that army thread-
bare, and Scotland was too meagrely peopled to supply
army after army of from twenty to thirty thousand
men. No doubt the whole army subscribed the Cov-
enant, but the greater part of them would probably
have subscribed anything else. The zeal was limited
to the attendant clergy and a few of the lay leaders.
It seems to have strenothened the reasons for remov-
ing the young king that he was becoming popular
among the troops. It was noted that uj)on their
facings they marked with chalk the letter R for rex,
and it was apprehended that a spirit of mere personal
loyalty might supersede the due devotion to Christ's
crown and Covenant. If we may trust an English
Royalist onlooker, their staft' of subordinate officers
was as wretched as it well could be, "placing for the
most part in command ministers' sons, clerks, and
such other sanctified creatures, who hardly ever saw
or heard of any sword but that of the Spirit, — and
with this, their chosen crew, made themselves sure
of victory." ^
Leslie appeared to handle his army, such as it was,
to great purpose. He used the wonderful material
for a fortified camp supplied by the heights near
Edinburgh. It was desirable to keep both Edinburgh
and Leith united within the fortified line, that Crom-
well might not have access to the sea by seizing the
port of Leith. This line of defence, beginning at the
Firth to the eastward of Leith, kept the successive
heights of Hermitage Hill, Hawkhill, Restalrig, the
Calton Hill, Salisbury Crags, and St Leonards, until
it came under the protection of the guns of the castle.
' Walker, 162-04.
Cromwell's invasion, 1650. 273
There were some small affairs of outposts, but nothing
that Cromwell could do would draw Leslie out of his
strong lair. One of these is thus described by the great
Cromwell himself, on the occasion of his retiring to
]\Iusselburgh, where his headquarters were : " We came
to Musselburgh that night, so tired and wearied for
want of sleep, and so dirty by reason of the wetness
of the weather, that we expected the enemy would
make an onfall upon us ; which accordingly they did
between three and four of the clock this morning,
with fifteen of their most select troops, under the
command of Major-General Montgomery and Strachan,
two champions of the Church, upon which business
there was great hope and expectation laid. The
enemy came on with a great deal of resolution, beat
in our guards, and put a regiment of horse in some
disorder ; but our men, speedily taking the alarm,
charged the enemy, routed them, took many prisoners,
killed a great many of them, did execution to within
a quarter of a mile of Edinburgh." " This is a sweet
beginning of your business, or rather the Lord's, and
I believe is not very satisfactory to the enemy, especi-
ally to the Kirk party." " I did not think advisable
to attempt upon the enemy, lying as he doth ; but
surely this would sufficiently provoke him to fight if
he had a mind to it. I do not think he is less than
six or seven thousand horse and fourteen or fifteen
thousand foot. The reason I hear that they give out
to their people why they do not fight us is, because
they expect many bodies of men out of the north of
Scotland, which when they come they give out they
will then engage. But I believe they would rather
tempt us to attempt them in their fastness within
VOL. VIJ. s
274 COMMONWEALTH.
which they are intrenchcel, or else hoping we shall
famish for want of provisions, which is very likely to
be if we be not timely and fully supplied."^
On another occasion, retiring towards the camp at
Musselburgh, " the enemy perceiving it, and, as we
conceive, fearing we might interpose between them
and Edinburgh, though it was not our intention
albeit it seemed so by our march, retreated back
again with all haste, having a bog and pass between
them and us." " That night we quartered within a
mile of Edinburgh and of the enemy. It was a most
tempestuous night and wet morning. The enemy
marched in the night between Leith and Edinburgh,
to interpose between us and our victual, they know-
ing that it was spent. But the Lord in mercy pre-
vented it. And we perceiving in the morning, got
time enough, through the goodness of the Lord, to
the sea-side to revictual, the enemy being drawn up
upon the hill near Arthur Seat, looking upon us but
not attempting anything."^ The hill " near" Arthur
Seat must have been the hill itself so called. From
the top and eastern slope of Arthur Seat all the move-
ments of Cromwell's army through the flat country
towards Musselburgh must have been distinctly seen.
More than a month passed in this fashion, yet Leslie
would not trust his imperfect army to a battle.
Cromwell shifted his place on a radius of six miles
from Edinburgh, at one time going as far west as
Colinton. Still Leslie either hovered above him, or
if he took the high ground, was safe on some other
eminence. The end seemed inevitable — Cromwell
must either be starved into submission, or must force
1 Carlyle, ii. 164, 165. - Ibid., 176.
BATTLE OF DUNBAR, 1650. 275
his way back, with the certainty that he would carry
with him but a fragment of his fine army. At the
end of August he removed to Dunbar. Here he had
the command of the sea for provisions and munitions,
and for the removal of his troops were there shipping
enough at his disposal. All along the east coast there
is a bank or line of elevated ground, the first slopes of
the Lammermuirs or other chains of Border mountains.
Along these slopes marched Leslie, ever above his
enemy ; and when Cromwell encamped at Dunlaar,
Leslie was still above him on the Hill of Doon. The
eye of any one visiting the neighbourhood of Dunbar
will at once select this hill from all others. It stands
forward from the range of the Lammermuirs like a
watch-tower. It is seen to unite the two cjualities
sought by Leslie — it commands a view of all the low
land bordering on the sea, and it is the centre roimd
which every movement of the enemy must describe a
circumference on which his army could descend. Dun-
bar itself was a flat peninsula, the hills at Leslie's
command approaching the coast so closely on the
south end that there could be no passage without a
battle at disadvantage.
On the 2d of September Cromwell wrote to
Haslerig, who commanded at Newcastle : " We are
upon an engagement very difficult. The enemy hath
blocked up our way at the pass at Copperspath,
through which we cannot get without almost a mir-
acle. He lieth so upon the hills that we know not
how to come that way without great difficulty, and
our lying here daily consumeth our men, who fall
sick beyond imagination.
" I perceive your forces are not in a capacity for
276 COMMONWEALTH.
present release. Wherefore, whatever becomes of iis,
it will be well for you to get what forces you can
together, and the south to help what they can. The
business nearly concerns all good people. If your
forces had been in a readiness to have fallen upon the
back of Cijpperspath, it might have occasioned supplies
to have come to us. But the only wise God knows
what is best. All shall work for good. Our sjjirits
are comfortable, praised be the Lord, though our pre-
sent condition be as it is. And indeed we have much
hope in the Lord, of whose mercy we have had large
experience." ^
It was on that very evening that, to his surprise
and delight, he observed a movement in the host on
Doon Hill. They were coming down into the plain ;
the movement lasted all night, and at dawn of day
the Scots had relinquished their advantage. It is a
question whether in this movement Leslie acted on
his own discretion, or on the dictation of the com-
mittees from the Estates and the Church who ham-
pered his camp. To one conversant with the spirit
of the times nothing seems more natural than this.
Cromwell being mercifully delivered into their hands,
it was fitting that they should stretch forth their hands
and accept of the gift. If such views were canvassed,
it can easily be believed that Leslie could not keep his
force together on the mound, and must be content
to do what he could to preserve them from destruc-
tion.^
I Gaily le, ii. 179, 180.
^ Burnet is the authority generally cited for the interference :
" Leslie was in the chief conimand ; but he had a committee of the
Estates to give him his orders, among whom Warriston was one.
These were weary of lying in the fields, and thought that Leslie made
BATTLE OF DUNBAR, 1650. 277
There is a brief account of his calamity by David Les-
lie himself in a letter to Argyle. If it can be said to
attribute the defeat to the interference of the com-
mittees, the shape in which this operated must haA'e
not haste enougli to destroy those sectaries, for so they came to call
them. He told them by lying there all was sure, but that by en-
gaging in action with gallant and desperate men all might be lost ; yet
they still called on him to fall on. Many have thought that all this
was treachery done on design to deliver up our army to Cromwell —
some laying it upon Leslie, and others upon my uncle. I am persuaded
there was no treachery in it, only Warriston was too hot and Leslie too
cold, and yielded too easily to their humours, which he ought not to
have done." — Summary of Affairs. It has recently become a sort of
historical canon that Burnet is ever to be discredited. He no doubt
colours and likes to make up a good story ; but he was honest " after a
manner " — more honest, for instance, than Clarendon. He had good
means of knowing what lie speaks of here, for the " uncle " he refers to
was Warriston.
Burnet was a child seven years old when the battle was fought ; he
was eighteen years old when his uncle Warriston was executed. The
news of the day as told by Baillie, unpublished in Burnet's day, goes
far to confirm his account, and affords a pathetic story of practical
genius thwarted and a cause ruined by self-sufficient intermeddlers :
" After the woeful rout at Dunbar, in the first meeting at Stirling, it
was openly and vehemently pressed to have David Leslie laid a-side, as
long before was designed, but covertly, by the chief purgers of the
times. The man himself did as much press as any to have liberty to
demit his charge, being covered with shame and discouragement for his
late unhappiness, and irritated with Mr James Guthrie's public invec-
tives against him from the pulpit. The most of the commission of
Estates and committee of the Kirk would have been content to let him
go ; but finding no man tolerably able to supply his place, and the
greatest part of the remaining oflicers of horse and foot peremptor to
lay down if he continued not — and after all trials finding no malad-
ministration on him to count of but the removal of the army from the
hill the night before the rout, \\hich yet was a consequence of the
committee's order, contrar to his mind, to stop the enemy's retreat, and
for that end to storm Brocksmouth House as soon as possible, — on these
considerations the State unanimously did with all earnestness entreat him
to keep still his charge. Against this order my Lord Warriston, and, I
suppose. Sir John Chiesly, did enter their dissent. I am sure Mr James
Guthrie did his, at which, as a great impertinence, many were offended."
— Letters, &c., iii. 111. Sir Edward Walker does not mention the inter-
ference of the committees on this occasion, but on another he refers
278 COMMONWEALTH.
l)een in weakening the sense of obedience and dis-
cipline in the subordinate commanders : " Concerning
the misfortune of our army I shall say nothing but it
was the visible hand of God, with our own laikness,
and not of man that defeat them, notwithstanding
of orders given to stand to their arms that night. I
know I got my own share of the fall by many for
drawing them so near the enemy, and must suffer
for this as many times formerly, though I take God
to witness we might have as easily beaten them as we
did James Graham at Philiphaugh, if the officers had
stayed by their troops and regiments."-^
Cromwell had at hand two men whose fame as
soldiers Avas second only to his own — Monk and
Lambert. The three watched Leslie's movement as
well as they could, for to conceal it as well as he
might he had ordered the musketeers to extinguish
their matches. Cromwell watched the point of time
at which the amount of daylight and the condition of
his enemy, as having left the hill without being well
formed below, concurred in his favour, and then struck
the blow. The effect of the attack was an index to
Leslie's opinion of his OAvn army. The lines intrusted
with the front stood firm and were slain. The great
half-disciplined mass behind broke and scattered. The
defeat was entire. The victor rendered an account of
it in the words following : —
to them as having absolute command. It was employed in preventing
Leslie from attacking when he would : " The committee would not give
way to attempt on him, saying it were pity to destroy so many of their
brethren ; but seeing the next day they were like to fall into their
hands, it were better to get a dry victory, and send them back with
shame for their breach of covenant." — P. 180.
' Copied from the original in the Lothian Papers, through the courtesy
of the Marquess of Lothian.
BATTLE OF DUNBAR, 1650. 279
" The enemy's word was ' The Covenant ! ' which it
had been for divers days ; ours ' The Lord of hosts ! '
The Major -General, Lieutenant -G-eneral Fleetwood,
and Commissary - General Whalley and Colonel
Twistleton gave the onset, the enemy being in a
very good posture to receive them, having the advan-
tage of their cannon and foot against our horse.
Before our foot could come up, the enemy made a
gallant resistance, and there was a very hot dispute
at sword's point between our horse and theirs. Our
first foot, after they had discharged their duty (being-
overpowered with the enemy), received some repulse,
which they soon recovered ; for my own regiment,
under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Gofte and
my major AVhite, did come seasonably in, and at
the push of pike did repel the stoutest regiment the
enemy had there, merely with the courage the Lord
was pleased to give. Which proved a great amaze-
ment to the residue of their foot, this being the first
action between the foot. The horse in the mean time
did Avith a great deal of courage and spirit beat back
all oppositions, charging through the bodies of the
enemy's horse and of their foot, who were, after the
first repulse given, made by the Lord of hosts as
stubble to their swords. Lrdeed I believe I may
speak it without partiality, both your chief com-
manders and others in their several places, and
soldiers also, were acted with as much courage as
ever hath been seen in any action since this war.
I know they look not to be named, and therefore
I forbear particulars.
" The best of the enemy's horse being broken through
and through in less than an hour's dispute, their
28o CO.IMONWEALTH.
whole army being put into confusion, it became a total
rout, our men having the chase and execution of them
near eight miles. We believe that upon the place
and near about it were about three thousand slain.
Prisoners taken : of their officers you have this en-
closed list ; of private soldiers near ten thousand. The
Avhole baggage and train taken, wherein was good
store of match, powder, and bullet ; all their artillery,
great and small, thirty guns. We are confident they
have left behind them not less than fifteen thousand
arms. I have already brought in to me near two
hundred colours, which I herewith send you." ^
This battle, fought on the 3d of September 16.50,
concludes an epoch in our history. The ecclesiastical
parties retain their picturesque peculiarities and their
bitterness. Tragic incidents occur, born of treachery
and cruelty on the one side and rugged fanaticism on
the other. But that momentous exercise of power
which had endowed these peculiarities Avith a certain
awe and dignity is gone, and hereafter these parties
have a merely local history. The breadth of influence,
indeed, achieved by Scotland during the years just
passed over, is an anomaly in history. According to
the usual course of events, Scotland, for the eighty
years now come to a close, should have possessed no
separate national history. When Edinburgh Castle
was taken in 1.573, the nationality of Scotland was
provisionally at an cud — provisionally so — that is,
the permanence of the situation depended on King
James succeeding to the throne of England. He did
so, and thus the condition was confirmed and perma-
nent. The old league with France was at an end,
1 Carlyle, ii. 191, 192.
&
BATTLE OF DUNBAR, 1650. 281
and Scotland's lot Avas thro^vn in with England's. It
was not that the influence of Scotland was to be anni-
hilated— it would tell in the national policy, like the
influence of the northern counties of Enoland against
London and the south. But in the natural order of
things, Scotland was no longer to put her separate
mark on tlie politics and history of the day. It hap-
pened otherwise, as we have seen. Of the two States
united, the small State had ardour and strength
sufficient to drag the large State along with it ; for
Scotland began the contest which, after becoming so
memorable in British history, influenced the fate of
the whole civilised world.
After the heat of battle had let itself out in the
" chase and execution " of nearly eight miles, the con-
queror showed a temper of humanity and lenity to
the wounded and the prisoners. It was not to be a
continuation of the Irish work. The Lowland Scots
Avere not enemies of God and civilised man, whose
doom was extirpation. Their hostility was the inci-
dental effect of political conditions, and with their
invaders they had many common ties of brotherhood.
The battle of Dunbar gave Cromwell the command of
the open country south of the Forth, Edinburgh Castle
and the other fortresses remaining in the hands of the
Committee of Estates.
Accompanying and following this decisive battle
Avas a very undecisive Avar of Avords. It Avas matter
of derision to the indifferent or irreverent onlooker,
who saw a competition betAveen the general of the
Independents and the clergy of the Covenant, in
which the point of advantage appeared to be the
excelling in the use of fanatical and Pharisaical Ian-
282 COMMONWEALTH.
guage. AVhether or not Cromwell was the arcli-liypo-
crite he has been called, the indifFerent bystander
is apt to sympathise with his cause, since, while he
girds himself valiantly for the fight, and is as vigor-
ously pious as his opponents, he does not think, like
them, that true piety is a monojjoly of his own sect.
One might be tempted to quote at length from this
controversy, but there is one short precept uttered
by Cromwell against his assailants so complete and
powerful that it were a pity to mix it up with any
other passages. He asks if it is certain that all his
opponents say is " infallibly agreeable to the Word
of God ; " and then follows the grand precept : "I
beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible
you may be mistaken." ^
One standing and predominating element in the
controversy was tlie lay preaching, which had become
a favourite occupation of the Independent soldiers.
On this he rated his clerical opponents powerfully :
" Are you troubled that Christ is preached ? Is
preaching so peculiarly your function 1 Doth it
scandalise the Reformed Churches, and Scotland in
particular 1 Is it against the Covenant 1 Away with
the Covenant if this be so ! " " Your pretended fear
lest error should step in, is like the man who would
keep all the wine out of the country lest men should
be drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise
jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon
a supposition he may abuse it. When he doth abuse
it, judge. If a man speak foolishly, ye suflfer him
gladly, because ye are wise ; if erroneously, the truth
more appears by your conviction. Stop such a man's
^ Carlyle, ii. 168, 169.
CROMWELL IN SCOTLAND, 1650. 283
mouth by sound words which cannot be gainsaid. If
he speak bLasphemously, or to the disturbance of the
public peace, let the civil magistrate punish him ; if
truly, rejoice in the truth." ^
Such things must have opened up new avenues of
thought and controversy to men whose polemical
training had been all in the tactics of warfare against
Popery and Prelacy.
There was another point where, on the face of the
controversy, Cromwell appeared to bear himself chari-
tably and reasonably. A group of the ministers had
taken refuge in Edinburgh Castle. He thought it
might be more to the purpose that they were among
their flocks in the performance of their pious duties.
But they declined to trust themselves abroad in a land
infested by sectaries and blasphemers. Dundas, the
governor — Leven's son-in-law — was their first spokes-
man ; and he naturally attributed their reluctance to
timidity, referring to the usage given to ministers in
England and Ireland. Cromwell's answer was : " No
man hath been troubled in England or Ireland for
preaching the Gospel ; nor has any minister been
molested in Scotland since the coming of the army
hither." ^ Words of truth, since it was not " for
preaching the Gospel " that he left his bloody mark
on Ireland. In a second letter, embodying the views
of the ministers, they revealed their true grievance —
that the sectaries would not permit them to take the
command of the affairs of the country, or speak their
minds about the sectaries and other evil - doers :
" That it savours not of ingenuity to promise liberty
of preaching the Gospel, and to limit the preachers
' Carlyle, ii. 20. ' Ibid., 205.
284 COMMONWEALTH..
thereof that they must not speak against tlie sins and
enormities of civil powers, since their commission
carrieth them to speak the Word of the Lord unto
and to reprove the sins of persons of all ranks, from
the highest to the lowest. " ^
Cromwell and they afterwards found a good deal
of common ground to meet on ; and if he had only
favoured them on one point — if he had abjured that
" damnable doctrine of toleration " — they might have
been excellent friends. Even the embittered and
sorely afflicted heart of Baillie was touched by the
unexpected gentleness of the terrible sectarian. On
his arrival in Glasgow " the ministers and magistrates
flee all away. I got to the Isle of Cumbrae with my
Lady Montgomery, but left all my family and goods
to Cromwell's courtesy, which indeed was great; for
he took such a course with his sojours that they did
less displeasure at Glasgow nor if they had been at
London, though Mr Zachary Boyd railed on them all
to their very face in the High Church." ^
Let us now look in upon the young king or prince,
and his small court or jail at Dunfermline, afterwards
shifted to Perth. If his heart was not changed, it was
from no deficiency of the preaching, pi'ayer, exhortation,
admonition, and all the apparatus of persuasion and
threats available to the Covenanting community. Of
the tone in which it was rendered we have perhaps
seen examples more than enough. Of its effect those
who dealt with it had a startling opportunity of judg-
ing. One morning — the 4th of October — they found,
to their consternation, that he had escaped. There
was immediate chase, and he was fouud in the wilds
1 Carlyle, ii. 207. '■' Letters, iii. 129. Of Mr Zucliary, see above, p. 225.
CORONATION OF CHARLES II., 1651. 285
of AthoU, desolate as a truant schoolboy who has run
from his home without forecasting a place of refuge.
There was, in fact, a plan, deep and formidable in its
way, for gathering round him a loyal army of north
Highlanders ; but he went to the spot where he was
to meet their chiefs too soon, and lost his opportunity.
On his return it was resolved that if his friends
were to keep him, it should be in a shape available
for political purposes by making him King. Arrange-
ments were accordingly made for crowning him in
Scone, where so many of his gallant ancestors had
been anointed.
The 1st of January 16.51 was the day appointed
for the ceremon}', and with one exception it was
performed with all state and magnificence ; for the
" honours " of Scotland — the crown, SAVord, and scep-
tre— were at hand, and those who filled the ofiices of
State in attendance. Argyle took precedence, and
placed the crown on the king's head. The occasion
was improved by Eobert Douglas in a sermon which
in this age would be deemed of monstrous length.^
The preacher lifted his protest alike against
Engagers who co-operated with the uncovenanted,
the Kemonstrants, who followed their own factious
ends, and the Sectaries, who were for no monarchy.
In his sermon, too, and a personal exhortation by
which it was followed, he enlarged emphatically on
the parental sins, which were to be repented of and
avoided if the new monarch would escape wrath and
condemnation.^
1 The Form and Order of the Coronation of Charles the Second, King
of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, as it was acted and done at
Scone the 1st day of January 1651. Printed at Aberdeen in 1651.
^ Douglas had, according to tradition, an origin that also admitted of
286 COMMONWEALTH.
The part omitted was the auointing. This omission
was improved by the preacher, who referred to the
unction as a rag of Popish and Prelatical superstition.
Now, however, " by the blessing of God, Popery and
Prelacy are removed. The bishops, as limbs of Anti-
christ, are put to the door ; let the anointing of kings
with oU go to the door with them." To compensate
for this omission, the National Covenant and the
Solemn League and Covenant were read over to the
king, and again signed by him.
A new army now assembled under new conditions.
To find these we must again grope our way through
ecclesiastic intricacies. Half Scotland was occupied at
that time in an attempt to solve the lesson intended to
be taught in the defeat at Dunbar — the meaning of the
Lord in His dealing with them, as it was termed. A
looker - on with strong Prelatic prepossessions said :
" There was great lamentation by the ministers, who
now told God Almighty it was little to them to lose
their lives and estates, but to Him it was great loss to
suffer His elect and chosen to be destroyed, and many
other such blasphemous expressions ; and still crying
out not to take in any of the Engagers, or to assert the
kingdom of Christ by carnal or selfish means." ^ Crom-
well threw back upon them, in theii- own peculiar style,
but somewhat enriched and strengthened, some jeering
taunts on the tendency of the lesson : " Although they
repentance for ancestral sins. He was supposed to be the grandson of
George Douglas and Queen Mary — a sequel to the scandal referred to
aljove. He was called by Woibow " a great State preacher." He had
been chaplain of the Scots troops in the service of Qustavus Adolphus,
who esteemed him much. We shall meet with him as the colleague of
James Sharp on a mission to the Court at the period of the Restoration.
1 Walker, 183.
CAUSES OF WRATH, 1650-51. 287
seem to comfort themselves with being sons of Jacob,
from whom they say God hath hid His face for a time,
yet it's no wonder, when tlie Lord hath lifted up His
hand so eminently against a family as He hath done
so often against this, and men will not see His hand
— it's no wonder if the Lord hide His face from such
putting Him to shame, both for it and their hatred of
His people as it is this day." ^
Here he touched a point on which many were per-
plexedly meditating and doubting. Was it possible
that after all they were on the wrong side ? They had
asserted vehemently and positively that the defeat of
Hamilton's army at Preston was a judgment for the
adoption of the Engagement. And what of this
heavier defeat ? Immediately after the battle, and
before the doubters had made up their minds to speak
out, the General Assembly decreed a clay of fasting
and humiliation : it was to be held on the 15tli of
September ; and an edict was issued, called " Causes
of solemn public humiliation upon the defeat of our
army, to be kept through all the Congregation of Scot-
land." In this paper distinct " causes of The Lord's
wrath " were stated, to the number in all of fourteen.
They were all attributed to insufficiency of purgation ;
and, what is especially odd when one remembers how
many things at that time were taken for granted with-
out examination to find whether they existed or not,
the insufficiencies were generally accidental through
negligence, not from false intention. In fact the
report on the causes of the Lord's dealing at Duubar
resembles a report on a railway accident or the ex-
plosion of a powder-manufactory, explaining how it
1 Carlyle, ii. 206.
288 COMMONWEALTH.
has been caused Ijy neglect of the regulated precau-
tions. Taken as one instance, perhaps the most
serious of the defects on this occasion was " the
leaving of a most malignant and profane guard of
horse to he about the king, and Avho being sent for to
be purged, came two days before the defeat, and were
suffered to be and fight in our army." ^ Baillie,
whose zeal was mingled with sense and worldly
experience, tells a friend how he escaped responsibility
as to the acceptance of these articles. " The Lord,"
he says, " in a very sensible way to me carried it so,
that neither the Synod was troubled with me, nor the
peace of my mind by them. I once inclined to absent
myself, but behoved to return, not daring to take that
course." But the course was taken for him ; he was
called out to speak with the Lord Cassilis on business
— the business occupied his mind, the time passed
unnoted, and when he returned all had been voted.
Baillie was writing to his close friends Dickson and
Spang, and so he reveals some weaknesses affecting
his own favourite system of Church government, when
some " did bring forth that strange remonstrance of
the Synod, when Mr Patrick, obtaining a committee to
consider the sins procuring the wrath of God on the
land, did put such men on it as he liked best, and by
them the framing of the draught was put upon him-
self;" which gives opportunity for this commentary :
" I have oft regretted of late to see the judicatories
of the Church so easily led to whatever some few of
our busy men designed, but never more than in the
particLdar in hand."^
The " Causes of The Lord's wrath " became a cele-
' Walker, 184; Peterkin's Records, 600. ^ Letters, iii. 115.
CAUSES OF WRATH, 1650-55. 289
brated paper, as in after-years it was made a test of guilt,
— those who had given it positive support having com-
mitted an overt act of treason ag-ainst Kinof Charles II.
Others went farther than Baillie in dissent from
this standard, and thought it lawful in the extremity
to use such forces as were available. These were
called " Eesolutioners," as those who were parties to
resolutions for admission to public office, civil or
military, of those who had been included in the Act
of Classes. They acted rather in tacit understanding
than by open testimony ; and it is in the protestations
and remonstrances uttered against them, rather than
in their own account of themselves, that they stand
forth as the supporters of a special policy. In the
"sense of the Parliament" dealing with objections,
the new policy is defined in these hesitating terms.
" We have in this time of extreme dano-er to the cause
and kino-dom, after advice had from the commissioners
of the General Assembly, admitted many who were
formerly excluded to be employed in the army in this
defensive war against the army of sectaries, who, con-
trary to covenant and treaties, have most perfidiously
invaded and are destroying this kingdom, not daring
to omit so necessary a duty for fear of a future danger
which may ensue upon the employment of such." ^
Baillie, who affords so many clear pictures of his
times, loses his distinctness at this juncture, and lets
us feel the perplexities of himself and others in the
mistiness of his revelations : —
" We had long much debates about employing Ma-
lignants in our arms. Some were of opinion that the
Acts of Church and State were unjust and for par-
1 Act. Pari. (01(1 Record Ed.), vi. 555.
VOL. VII. T
290 COMMONWI'-AI/l'II.
ticiiliii- cuds froiii l1i<; \>r'n\\u\u</. All iiffrccd tliiil,
coiumon KuldliTS, ;ii'Lcf HiitiHfiiciiiin In ihc, ( iliurc.li,
mi;i;lil- 1)C tiikcn in. Iliii iis for odlccrH, nolilc.incn, ii.nd
<i;riil,lciii(;n voluiiiccrH, llicy W(M'c. tioI, to ho tidccii In ;ij,
all, at IciiHt not wiihout iiii<; (ariincnl, dcnrcu; of evident
i-(.'|)cntii,ncc.
" 'I'lic nioHt tliouf^lit tlic.y rni^dit ]>(', <'ni|iloyc(l ii,n
soldiers, on tlicir lulniil.tiuice liy tlio ('liurnli to tlic
Ba('i';i,rnciit iuid CyOV<;nii,nt. As (or placcH oC (•onnscl
and, trust, tliii.t this wii.s to Ik; left to tlics StiiXe's dis-
ci-iJlon. JIfjwovcr, when the case w;i,s clearly idtci'c.d,
and now there was jjo choici; of men, the l'a,r'liarnciit
wrote; to Mr Itfjljci't l)oii;ilii,H to ca,ll the eorfiiiiiHHi(j|]
extraordinarily : a qnoruni was gol,, most of thcHc of
J^'ife. 'I'he (juestion was jirojioncd, of th<; la.wrulncHH
of employing such who hefon; were excluded. The
question was alleeed to he, altered from tliaJ, which
Mr fJillespie writes of, a.nd that whereto Mr fJuthrie
had sf^ilenuijv eufa/icd —a defence; of our life a,nd
country, in exti-eiue necessity, a.fia,in,st secl.aria.ns and
strangers, who ha,d twice been victors. My heaxt wa.n
in gn;at p(;rplexity for this question. I was much in
j)rayer to (<od, and irj sfinie action with men, for a
concord in it. 'J'he Parliament were necessita,te to
employ more than hefon;, oi' give over their defence
Mr iSamuel Jiutherford and Mr. James Guthrie wroti;
peremptory letters to the old way, on all liazards.
Mr Robert Dou^jlas a,nd Mr l)a,vi<l l)ick had ol' a
long time fjeen in my sense, that in the war agajust
invading strangers our fotTuer Htrietness ha,d hcc.n
unadvised a,nd unjust. Mr j^lair and Mr JJurharn
wer<; a little amhiguous, which J rnucli fea,ref] should
have devised the cornniisHion; and likely had done so.
CAUSES OF WRATH, 1650-55. 291
if witli the loss of the west the absence of all the
brethren of the west had not concurred. However,
we carried ■unanimously at last the answer herewith
sent to you. My joy for this was soon tempered
when I saw the consequence — the ugging of sundry
good people to see numbers of grievous bloodshedders
ready to come in, and so many I\Ialignant noblemen
as were not Hke to lay down arms till they were put
into some places of trust, and restored to their vote in
Parliament." ^
Agaia : — •
" Ane other inconvenient was like to trouble us,
a seed of hyper-BroT\Tiism, which had been secretly
sown in the miads of sundiy of the soldiers, that it
was unlawful to join in arms with such and such men,
and so that they were necessitate to make a civd
separation from such, for fear of sin and cursing of
their enterprises. The main fomenters of these doubts
seemed not at all to be led by conscience, but by
interest ; for the officers of our standing army, since
the defeat at Dunbar, being sent to recruit the regi-
ments to the northern shires, did little increase that
number, but taking large money for men, and yet
exacted quarters for men which were not ; this
vexed the country and disappointed the service. The
officers, by the new levies, thought it easy to be
recruited at their pleasure ; but ane Act passing, that
the new le%des should not recruit the old regiments,
they stormed, and gladly wotdd have blasted the new
way for their own ends. Under these evds we wrestle
as yet, but hopes for a good end of these divisions
also ; in the mean time Cromwell is daily expected to
1 Letters, &c., iii. 126.
292 COMMONWEALTH.
march towards Stirling to mar the coronation, which,
sore against my heart, was delayed to the 1st of
January, on pretence of keeping a fast for the sins of
the king's family on Thursday next. AVc mourned
on Sunday last for the contempt of the Gospel, accord-
ing to Mr Dickson's motion, branched out by Mr
Wood. Also you see in the printed papers, upon
other particulars the commission at Stirling, which
appointed these fasts, could not agree. The Ee-
monstrants pressed to have sundry sins acknowledged
which others denied, and would not now permit them
to set down as they would what causes of fast they
liked. Surely we had never more cause of mourning,
be the causes, what God knows, visible or invisible,
confessed or denied, unseen or seen, by all but the
most guilty. It cannot be denied but our miseries
and dangers of ruin are greater nor for many ages have
been — a potent victorious enemy master of our seas,
and for some good time of the best part of our land;
our standing forces against this his imminent inva-
sion, few, weak, inconsiderable; our Kirk, State, army,
full of divisions and jealousies; the body of our people
bcsouth Forth spoiled, and near starving; they be-
north Forth extremely ill used by a handful of our
own ; many inclining to treat and agree with Crom-
well, without care either of king or Covenant ; none of
our neighbours called upon by us, or willing to give
us any help though called. What the end of all shall
be the Lord knows. Many are ready to faint with
discouragement and despair; yet diverse are waiting
on the Lord, expecting He will help us in our great
extremity against our most unjust ojipressors."^
1 Letters, &c., iii. 127, 128.
THE REMONSTRANTS, 1650-51. 293
So, had the western representatives been present, the
dubious policy of the " Eesolutioners " would probably
have been outvoted. These western people drew apart
and uttered their own testimony in a " remonstrance."
Like so many of the papers of the day, those who
composed it took the opportunity of setting forth a
general code of policy both for Church and State ; but
when they touched on existing politics their utterance
was clear and unmistakable — a thorough contrast to
the hazy talk of the Resolutionists. Their position
was, that the young man Charles Stewart was not at
heart a sound Covenanter, and they who pretended to
believe he was a sound Covenanter knew that he was
not.^ Henceforth these men stood apart as a peculiar
people. They were called " Eemonstrants," and some-
times " Protesters," and in later times " the wild west-
land Whigs." It was their doom ever to be unfor-
tunate. It was not that they could possibly be in the
wrong, but the Lord had hidden His face from them
on account of the iniquity of the times. We shall
hear of them twenty years later, with all their pecu-
liai'ities hardened into them by the fire of persecution.
Meanwhile they raised a considerable army. It was
commanded by Colonel Archibald Strachan, an aljle
soldier — the same who led the party against Montrose
in Eoss-shire. It is singular that of this man, who
seemed for a few months to have the destinies of the
country in his keeping, so little should be known.
His name is not to be found in any biographical dic-
tionary. He went just a step beyond the place as-
sio-ned for " Scots worthies," and so was neither com-
o
1 " The humble Remonstrance of the Gentlemen, Commander, and
Ministers attending the Forces in the Wust ; " Peterkin, 604.
294 COMMONWEALTH.
tnemorated as friend nor enemy. It appears that lie
belonged to a class very acceptable to the zealous at
all times. He was an awakened sinner — one of those
whose early life was burdened with such a weight of
sin that they feel as if all the world ought to do pen-
ance for it. If he joined either the king or Cromwell,
it would alter the face of the contest; but he kept
aloof from both. It was observed that he put himself
out of the way of either, by taking his stand at Dum-
fries, in the south-western extremity of the country.
Though a party of his followers had a skirmish with
a part of Cromwell's army near Hamilton, yet he was
suspected of favouring the sectaries. "Since the
amendment of his once very low life," says Baillie,
" he inclined much in opinion towards the sectaries ;
and having joined with Cromwell at Preston against
the Engagers, had continued with them to the king's
death." This was an occasion on which it was an
offence to be on either side. He was brought to
" content the commission of the Church for his error,"
but "at this time many of his old doubts revives in
him." ^ The records of Parliament would make his
conduct less doubtful, if we could believe in them. It
is observable that the Estates met at Perth, with the
king at their head, passing with all solemnity many
Acts which dropped into oblivion. They took the
initial steps of a prosecution against Strachan, as an
abettor of the enemy, along with Dundas, who had
traitorously, as they held, rendered Edinburgh Castle
to the sectaries.^
1 Baillie's Letters, iii. 112, 113.
^ Summons against Colonel Archibald Strachan, Walter Dundas of
that ilk, and others; Acts, vi. 548.
BATTLE OF WORCESTER, 165 1. 295
Wodrow had it from his wife's uncle, the husband
of Strachan's sister, that " he was a singular Christian ;
that he was excommunicate summarily for his leaving
them [with] the forces at Hamilton ; that his heart
was much broken with that sentence, and he sickened
and died within a while ; that he was so far from
being upon Cromwell's interest, that he had the greatest
offers made him by Cromwell, and refused them ; that
he had the general's place offered him of all Crom-
well's forces in Scotland, and refused it." ^
To whatever direction his intentions tended, fate
took the decision out of his hands. The army group-
ing round the king enlarged, and under David Leslie
they fortified themselves on the height between Stir-
ling and Falkirk, renowned in the days of Wallace as
the Tor Wood. In vain Cromwell endeavoured to draw
them out to battle. At length, after watching them
for several months, he determined to take his own
post at the other side of the king's. He crossed the
Forth at Queensferry, and beating a force Avhich at-
tempted to intercept him at Inverkeithing, reached
and occupied Perth. The way southward was now
open, and the royal army did an act of unexpected
decision and spirit. Silently and speedily they
marched into England. It was the same strategy
that brought Montrose to Scotland seven years earlier
— the enemy's army was absent at the other end of
the island. They passed through Yorkshire and be-
yond Staffordshire, a moving centre to which the
Royalists of England were expected to gravitate, but
these came only in small numbers.
It was of course obvious to Cromwell, that unless
^ Analecta, ii. 86.
296 COMMONWEALTH.
this small army were speedily sought and destroyed,
it would reach London, where it might enlarge itself
and renew the war in earnest. They had reached
Worcester before he overtook them. Here, unless they
could occupy some strong post on the Malvern Hills,
it was clear that Worcester itself was the safest spot
for a stand : it had a wall, with Gothic gates, strongly
defensible before the days of artillery, and between
them and the enemy was the rapid Severn. Nowhere
else in the low country was there a post so defensible.
The king and his attendants from the cathedral tower
saw the enemy making a bridge of boats across the
Severn where the Teme joins it a little way below the
town. A party was sent to stop the making of the
bridge ; but it was either too late or too feeble for its
purjDose, and was driven back. This bridge united
Cromwell and Fleetwood. The Scots made their chief
stand at the Sudbury Gate — probably a large Gothic
building like its neighbour, Edgar's Gate, still visible.
The Scots occupied the castle, where, according to
Cromwell himself, they " made a very considerable
fight Avith us for three hours' space," until they were
driven from it and its guns turned on them. While
they continu.ed the fight at Sudbury Gate, the king,
who saw what the event was to be, made his escape
with a few personal followers. His army was anni-
hilated. This battle was fought on the 3d of Septem-
ber 1651, the first anniversary of the battle of Dunbar.
"Indeed," says the victor, "this hath been a glorious
mercy, and as stifi" a contest for four or five hours as
I have ever seen." So ended the great civil war. It
was begun by the Scots — they partook in the first great
victory over the royal party, and here they shared its
SIEGE OF DUNDEE, 1651. 297
last battle and its conclusive defeat. Among the cap-
tives taken in the retreat or flight were David Leslie,
and ]\Iiddleton who became conspicuous in the reign
of Charles II.
]\Ionk was left in Scotland in command of five
thousand men — a sufficient force to remove all im-
pediments, now that Scotland was so drained of men,
and that Edinburgh Castle had fallen. In Stirling
Castle was found a deposit of public records, which
were removed to the Tower of London. The fate of
Dundee has attracted a mysterious and horrible inter-
est. Two days before the battle of Worcester it was
stormed. We are told that its large garrison was
"put to the edge of the sword," and that the inhabi-
tants— men and women, old and young — were miscel-
laneously slaughtered. It was one of the privileges or
"courtesies" established in the Thirty Years' War, that
if a town held out against a storm, it was handed over
to the licence of the soldiers, who slaughtered and
pillaged, as we may see in Callot's etchings. But the
enemy who had any chivalry in his nature permitted
all the unwarlike inhabitants to be removed before the
storming. Wanton cruelty was not one of Monk's
vices ; and had the storming of Dundee been such a
deed as some have described, it would have hung more
weightily on his memory, and been more frequently
referred to in contemporary history than it has been.
There is nothing in local record to confirm the aggra-
vations, and anticjuaries have in vain tried to find
where the crowd of sufferers was buried.^
' Thomson's History of Dundee, 72. Thongli local record gives no
assistance to the storj', local tradition— the parent of lies— gives ample
contribution to it : " It is a tradition here that the carnage did not cease
298 COMMONWEALTH.
Dundee had been selected as a city of refuge by
those who had been driven out of Edinburgh, Glasgow,
and Perth. When seeking safety there they took with
them their valuable movables. Hence the town was
a centre of critical interest to both parties. When
Monk threatened the place, the Committee of Estates
went in a body to arrange for its defence, and probably
to get within its defences. They were at Alyth, a
village in a hilly country some fifteen miles from
Dundee. Monk sent five hundred horse under Colonel
Aldriche to eject them, and it was noticed that in that
force there were Scotsmen who knew the ways through
the mountains, and served, as guides. •'■
It appears that when summoned to surrender,
till the third da}-, when a child was seen in a lane called the Thester
Row sucking its murdered mother." — Old Stat. Account, viii. 212. Mr
Stuart Wortle}^, in his notes to Guizot's Memoirs of Monk, says :
" Monk is charged with this atrocity on the authority of Ludlow, who
says that he commanded the governor and others to be killed in cold
blood. But we must recollect that Ludlow wrote long after (he finished
his Memoirs in 1699) at a distance (for he wrote in Switzerland), and
apparently, b}' internal evidence, very much from recollection. More-
over, Monk was one of those by whom he had ' seen their cause be-
trayed,' as he expresses it in his opening sentence ; and he had a strong
dislike to him, which often appears." — P. 61. Though not supported by
Whitelocke, Clarendon, Baillie, or Baker, however, Ludlow's is not the
only testimony to the charge. It is given hy Sir James Balfour, the
Lord Lyon, thus : " Monk commanded all, of whatsomever sex, to be
put to the edge of the sword. The townsmen did no duty in their o'^^^l
defence, but were most of them all drunken like so many beasts. There
were eight hundred inhabitants and soldiers killed, and about two hun-
dred women and children." — Vol. iii. 314. Gumble, Monk's chaplain and
biographer, improves on this story of the drunkenness. A treacherous
boy climbed over the wall and told Monk " in what condition the town
was, that at nine o'clock the strangers and soldiers used to take such
large morning draughts — whether to make them forget the misery their
country was in at that time, or their own personal troubles and losses —
that before the twelfth they were most of them drenched in their cups ;
but they were more drunk with a vain security and confidence." — P. 43.
^ Baker's Chronicle, 343.
SIEGE OF DUNDEE, 1651. 299
Lvimsden, tlie governor, gave a soldier's haughty
answer — all he would do for his enemies was to
give them a pass homewards. He was killed, but,
as we are told, by a casualty, after it had been re-
solved to save his life. Every one who has visited
Dundee must have noticed the church tower or belfry,
biiilt of massive masonry to a great height, and dark
and sullen in the absence in the lower stages of win-
dows or other openings to relieve the monotony of
the walls. Here the last stand was made, until the de-
fenders "were smothered out by the burning of straw." ^
We may believe that the assailants obtained much
valuable plunder in the stormed city ; but when it is
said that it was at the time crowded by people of
wealth and position, that tends to contradict the story
of the slaughter, since the fate of such persons would
be distinctly known.^
^ On looking at this building, it will be seen that its mndows have
been built up at some remote period, and in absence of any other account
of this closing up, ^Te may presume that it was for the purpose of
strengthening the post against Monk's attack. Few castles of the day
were stronger than this ecclesiastical edifice. When it was dra'mi "^^dth
its old openings — that is, with the old windows, according to the profiles
and mouldings still visible — the grim unadorned tower became one of
the richest and lightest specimens of that noblest of all forms of Gothic
architecture, the transition between the first and second pointed. — See
the engraving in Billings's ' Ecclesiastical and Baronial Antiquities.' It
is singular that, in this age of ecclesiological zeal and costly restoration,
a building should remain in deformity when the mere removal of a heap
of stones would make it a noble ornament to a city possessed by an
affluent and liberal community.
^ The author of the Old Statistical Account says that in the parish regis-
ters of the to^\•Ti. he can trace, as then present in it, " the Earls of Buchan,
Tweeddale, Buccleuch, and Rosebery, the Viscount of Newburgh, the
Lords Balcarras, Tester, and Ramsay, and the Master of Burley." But
Douglas's Peerage, and other genealogical documents, do not show that
these personages were slain at Dundee, or that the death of any of them
occurred in 1651.
300 COMMONWEALTH.
This was the hist blow in Scotland to those who,
whether as Covenanters or Cavaliers, supported the
throne and the house of Stewart. A strong man
armed had taken possession ; but at last there came
one stronger than he. Three infallibilities had suc-
cessively held rule — the infallibility of Laud on the
apostolic past ; the infallibility of the Covenanters ;
now it was the turn of the infallibility of Cromwell
and his army of saints. It exemplified a renowned
saying, that Providence was to be found with that
side which had brought the heaviest artillery into the
field. Cromwell was keenly alive to the potency of
that great arm of war, and his artillery was on a
scale of which Scotland had previously little concep-
tion.^
The new Government, whether we call it Protec-
torate or C!ommonwealth, was disj)osed — nay, it may
be said with more accuracy, earnestly endeavoured —
to treat Scotland fairly after its own way of dealing.
In the State documents the empire was spoken of as
" England," as indeed it often is at the present day,
after a habit sometimes provocative of protests by
Scotsmen never loud enough to be heard. The in-
genious idea of King James, adopted both in Parlia-
mentary procedure and diplomacy after the Union of
1707 — the idea of giving the new name of "Great
' A curious and impressive specimen of his " pommelling " will be
seen in the wall-plate of the tower of Borthwick, twelve miles from
Edinliurgh. It is one of the thickest-walled and strongest of the square
fortresses in Scotland, and its keeper thought he might even defy artil-
lery. Cromwell wrote liim a laconic letter, saying : " If j'ou necessitate
me to bend my cannon against you, you may expect what 1 doul)t not
you will not be pleased with" (Carlyle, ii. 228). A rough cavity torn
into the flat ashler stone- work shows that a few more shots would have
brought the enormous tower tojjpling to the ground.
THE PACIFICATION, 1651-52. 3or
Britain" to the two nations united under his sceptre
— was not known, or if known, not followed. The
ordinances wliich superseded Acts of Parliament in
England and Acts of the Estates in Scotland were
issued in the name of the Protector and Council, after-
wards the Protector and Parliament, "of England."
It was only when there were ordinances solely appli-
cable to Scotland that this part of "England" was
separately named. Thus there was no respect for the
nationality of the Scots or for their " ancient king-
dom." But there was much consideration for their
welfare as a people, and for just dealing with their
personal rights and obligations. To make a AA^nding-
up, as it were, of the quarrel concluded by Dunbar
and Worcester, an ordinance of indemnity was passed :
" His highness the Lord Protector of the Common-
wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the
dominions thereunto belonging, being desirous that
the mercies which it hath pleased God to give to this
nation by the successes of their forces in the late war
in Scotland, should be improved for the good and
advantage of both nations, and the people of Scotland
made equal sharers with those of England in the pre-
sent settlement of peace, liberty, and prosperity, with
all other privileges of a free people." This ordinance,
passed by his highness "with the consent of his Council,"
was ec[uivalent both to an indemnity for ofiences and
a declaration of peace between England and Scotland.
From the indemnity there were exceptions, including
specially the royal family, the house of Hamilton,
and some other persons of note, such as the Earls
Marischal, Lauderdale, and Loudon. There was a
o-cneral exception of the following classes : 1st, All mem-
302 COMMONWEALTH.
bers of the Estates wlio did not concur in " the great
protestation " against the resolution to send Hamil-
ton's army into England, " and all who served in that
army;" 2d, All who attended Parliament or the Com-
mittee of Estates after "the coronation of Charles
Stuart ; " 3d, All who took arms for " the said Charles
Stuart " after the battle of Dunbar, or followed him to
Worcester. There were complicated clauses for pre-
serving any claims over the estates thus forfeited held
by persons not implicated in the cause of forfeiture.^
There was one man in Scotland so powerful that
he became the object of a separate policy. Argyle
fortified himself in his Highland fastnesses. He pro-
posed to hold a meeting of the Estates at Inverary, to
which Huntly and other Eoyalists were invited.^ To
subdue him would be an affair of time and difficulty,
and Avould demand a kind of warfare to which Ene;-
lish forces were unaccustomed. The alternative,
however, was either subjugation or direct alliance.
Both parties preferred the latter alternative, and he
entered on treaty with " Major -General Pdchard Deane
on behalf of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of
England." By this treaty the marquess engages "that
he shall neither directly nor indirectly act or contrive
anything to the prejudice of the Parliament of the
Commonwealth of England, their forces, or authority
exercised in Scotland, but shall live peaceably and
quietly under the said Government." He is to use
^ Declarations, Orders, and Ordinances, ii. 231.
^ " Letters that the Lord Argjde had called in Parliament, and that
Mr Alexander [Andrew] Cant, a minister, said in his pulpit ' that God
was bound to own that Parliament. That all other Parliaments were
called by man, but this was brought about by His own hand.' " — White-
locke, 489.
CLOSING THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1653. 303
" the utmost of his endeavours " that in this his vassals
and follo-wers shall follo-\v his example. On the other
hand, the representative of the Parliament agrees that
he shall " enjoy his liberty, estate, lands, and debts,
and whatever duly belongs unto him, from all seques-
tration and molestation of the Parliament of the
Commonwealth of England." The treaty is not to
interfere with his " good endeavours for the establish-
ing of religion according to his conscience," provided
this be not accomplished by any act of hostility or
force.'^ The significance of this paper is in its testi-
mony to the great power acquired by the western
potentate, and in this sense it connects itself with
subsequent events.
One important thing had yet to be done. The
theologians Avho had kept Scotland in uproar for so
many years had to be silenced as well as the politicians.
The two opposing parties — the Eesolutioners and the
Eemonstrants — were girding their loins for a war of
extermination. After a long contest, with much sur-
rounding disturbance, the end Avould be that the
majority would drive forth the minority. In July
1653 the General Assembly met in Edinburgh, each
side charged with material for hot debate. What
occurred on that occasion can best be told in the
words of Baillie, both an eyewitness and a sufferer : —
" Lieutenant-Colonel Cotterel beset the church with
some rattes of musketeers and a troop of horse. Him-
self (after our fast, wherein Mr Dickson and Mr
Douo-las had two gracious sermons) entered the
Assembly House, and immediately after Mr Dickson
the moderator his prayer, required audience, wherein
> Articles of Agreement, &o. ; Kirkton, 105, n.
304 COMMONWEALTH.
lie inquired if we did sit there by tlie autliority of the
Parliament of tlie Commonwealth of England, or of
the commander-in-chief of the English forces, or of
the English judges in Scotland. The moderator re-
plied that we were an ecclesiastical synod, a spiritual
court of Jesus Christ, which meddled not with any-
thing civil ; that our authority was from God, and
established by the laws of the land yet standing un-
repealed ; that by the Solemn League and Covenant
the most of the English army stood obliged to defend
our General Assembly. When some speeches of this
kind had passed, the lieutenant-colonel told us his
order was to dissolve us ; whereupon he commanded
all of us to follow him, else he would drag us out of
the room. When we had entered a protestation of
this unheard-of and unexampled violence, we did rise
and follow him. He led us all throueh the whole
streets a mile out of the town, encompassing us with
foot companies of musketeers, and horsemen without,
all the people gazing and mourning as at the saddest
spectacle they had ever seen. When he had led us a
mile without the town, he then declared what further
he had in commission — that we should not dare to
meet any more above three in number, and that
against eight o'clock to - morrow we should depart
the town, under pain of being guilty of breaking the
public peace ; and the day following, by sound of
trumpet, we were commanded off town, under the
pain of present imprisonment. Thus our General
Assembly, the glory and strength of our Church upon
earth, is by your soldiery crushed and trod under
foot, without the least provocation from us at tliis
time, either in word or deed. For this our hearts are
CLOSING THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1653. 305
sad, our eyes run down with water, we sigh to God,
against whom we have sinned, and wait for the help
of His hand ; but from those who oppressed us we
deserved no evil." ^
The last shred of separate national organisation was
now gone, and for some years history is dormant in
Scotland. It Avas nearly so in England too. The
policy of Croni^elL «and his body of able assistants
was to fuse the two countries into one republic. The
history of the island centred in its achievements
abroad, and in these Scotland took her share. It was
an occasion calling forth the highest ability; for Eng-
land, having no longer a sovereign, had lost position
in the diplomatic ranking of European States, and
could calculate on gaining or holding nothing save by
sheer force. Scotland supplied to the Commonwealth
one of its best generals, and by far its best diploma-
tist, in Sir William Lockhart. He it was who braved
Richelieu, and made the Court of France forget its
chivalry in a close alliance with the Protectorate.
By an achievement uniting both military and diplo-
matic skill, he took Dunkirk out of the hands both of
France and Spain.^
If the Scots had not their full share in the govern-
ment of the republic, their own shyness to serve in it
was the reason. Warriston brought great scandal on
himself by yielding to the seductions of the Protector.
He took office, and became a member of Cromwell's
House of Lords, or "the other House," as it was
1 Letters, &c., iii. 225, 226.
■^ For some notices of Lockhart the author refers to his book called
' The Scot Abroad; ii. 230.
VOL. VII. U
306 COMMONWEALTH.
called ; and he became tlie chairman of the celebrated
Committee of Public Safety.
The Court of Session was superseded by a com-
mission of justice. Its members were called " the
English judges," but they were of both kingdoms.
In the first commission there were four Englishmen
and three Scotsmen. In the "precedents" cited by
the commentators on the law, or brought up in
pleadings to support forensic arguments, the deci-
sions of this court are naturally passed by. They
left, however, an impression that they were honest;
and there is a well-known anecdote accounting for
this virtue without allowing merit to the owners
— because they were " kinless loons," or persons
under no pressure of family influence in the dis-
charge of their duty. There is another tradition
of a more general character — that their method of
procedure did much to create the voluminous essays,
mixing uj) law, fact, and general ethical reasoning,
which came to be a heavy reproach to the method of
pleading in the Scottish courts of law. The men, it
was said, required not merely to be reminded of the
law, like learned judges, but had to be absolutely
instructed in it. A collection of their decisions is
preserved. It carries the impression of much pains-
taking, and is just as technical and absolutely shut
to the intelligence of the uninitiated as many of the
other " practics " of undoubted native growth.^ This
' The men wlio went over the voluminous pleadings, abbreviated in
such terms as these, certainly gave testimony to their earnest intentions :
"A general and special declarator of the single escheat of umquhile
Mr Patrick Ruthven, being pursued at the instance of John Clerk, mer-
chant and burgess of Edinburgh, iigainst the tenants of Redcastle and
the Laird of Ruthven. Excepted that there could be no declarator,
INCORPORATING UNION, 1654-60. 307
court had to deal with a great revolution in the law,
to be presently noticed — the abolition of the feudal
system, and the commutation of the pecuniary interests
arising out of the obligations thus thrown loose. But
perhaps to men to whom the old part of the law was
as much a novelty as the new, this duty might fall
more easily than on the experienced adepts trained in
an old established system.
In the few years of quietness thus inaugurated, the
most important transaction was an attempt to accom-
plish an incorporating union of England and Scot-
land. A body of commissioners was sent to Scotland
to adjust difHculties and endeavoru* to obtain co-oper-
ation in the proposed union. This commission con-
tains eminent names — it consisted of Saint John, the
younger Vane, General Lambert, General Deane,
General ]\Ionk, Colonel Fenwick, Alderman Tichburne,
and Major Sallowey.^ These commissioners desired
that delegates might be sent from the counties and
burghs, chosen like commissioners to the Estates, to
treat with them on the proposed union. The proposal
was received with lassitude and distaste rather than
active opposition. Of thirty-one shires, representatives
came from eighteen, and of fifty-six burghs twenty-
four were represented.^ We know little of the deliber-
ations of this assembly beyond the general conclusion
because the horning whereon the gift of escheat and declarator is
grounded bears Sir Francis to be denounced at the market-cross of
Edinburgh, whereas by the Act of Parliament all hornings whereupon
gifts of escheat are purchased ought to be used at the market-cross of
the head burgh where the party denounced dwells," &o. — Clerk contra
Ruthven, 30th November 1655 ; ' The Decisions of the English Judges
during the Usurpation, from the year 1655 to his Majesty's Restoration
and the setting dov^Ti of the Session in .Tune 1661. 1762.'
1 Whitelocke, 487. - Ibid., 502.
308 COMMONWEALTH.
that tlicy gave tUuir assent to tlie proposed union.
The union was ratified by an ordinance of the Su-
preme Council of tlie Commonwealth of England in
1G.54. It proceeded on the preamble, that "taking
into consideration how much it might conduce to the
glory of Cod and the peace and welfare of the people
in this whole island, that, after all those late and un-
happy wars and differences, the people of Scotland
should be united with the peoph; of England into one
commonwealth and under one government; ;i,nd find-
ing that in December IG.'}! the Parliament then sitting
did send commissioners into Scotland to invite the
people of that nation into such a happy union, who
})roceeded so far therein that the shires and burghs of
Scotland, by their deputies convened at Dalkeith, and
again at Edinburgh, <lid accept of the said union, and
assent thereunto."
The fundamental clause of the ordinance was, " That
all the people of Scotland, an<l of the Isles of Orkney
and Zetland, and of all the dominions and territories
belonging unto Scotland, are, and shall be, and are
liereby, incorporated into, constituted, established, de-
clared, and confirmed one commonwealth with Eng-
land ; and in every Parliament to be held successively
for the said Commonwealth, thirty persons shall be
called from and serve for Scotland." It was a con-
dition of this union, that Scotland be " discharged of
all fealty, homage, service, and allegiairce, which is or
shall be pretended due unto any of the issue and
posterity of Charles Stewart, late King of England and
Scotland, and any claiming under him."
For the annorial bearings and the public seals of
the united Commonwealth, it was jirovideil " tliat the
INCORPORATING UNION, 1654-60. 309
arms of Scotland — viz., a cross, commonly called St
Andrew's cross — be received into and borne from
henceforth in the arms of this Commonwealth as a
badge of this nnion ; and that all the public seals,
seals of office, and seals of bodies civil or corporate,
in Scotland, which heretofore carried the arms of the
kings of Scotland, shall from thenceforth, instead
thereof, carry these arms of the Commonwealth."
The thirty members for Scotland stood against
four hundred for England. The proportion was pro-
bably unequal, whether measured by population or
wealth. But when the armed command held by
England over Scotland at that time is looked at,
it will also be seen that there was courtesy and mo-
deration in the scheme which, in words, if not in
spirit, treated the two communities as independent
contracting parties. Still Scotland dealt with this
new constitution languidly. Representatives were
sent to the Parliament of 1654 — twenty from the
counties and ten for the burghs. It is observable,
however, that several of these representatives were
Englishmen — whether to save the expense attending
on the removal of Scotsmen to London, or from some
other cause. That Parliament was impracticable
under the other conditions of the Protectorate Govern-
ment, and its ephemeral existence is a small section of
English history. AVith this Parliament the Union, as a
representative institution, disappeared; but it had an-
other form of action, imparting a beneficence of which
the people of Scotland were too unconscious until
they lost it at the Pvestoration. This was the establish-
ment of free-trade between the two countries. This
great boon lies almost hidden in a provision of the
3IO COMMONWEALTH.
ordinance : " That all customs, excise, and other im-
posts for goods transported from England to Scotland,
and from Sctjtland to England, by sea or land, are
and shall be so far taken off and discharged, as that
all goods for the future shall pass as free, and with
like privileges, and with the like charges and burthens,
from Enoiand to Scotland, and from Scotland to Ene-
land, as goods passing from port to port, or place to
place, in England ; and that all goods shall and may
pass between Scotland and any other part of this
Commonwealth or dominions thereof with the like
privileges, freedom, and charges, as such goods do and
shall pass between England and the said parts and
dominions." ^
Thus commerce was as free between Caithness and
Middlesex as between Middlesex and Lancaster. The
great arena of commercial enterprise centred in Eng-
land was opened to the energetic and industrious
Scots. Of the beneficent influence likely to follow
such an ojsening up in a period of profound peace, we
can only form an estimate by remembering the rapid
progress in wealth and civilisation accruing to Scot-
land when the Union of 1707 got free action at the
conclusion of the insurrections forty years afterwards.
It was a help rather than an impediment to the influ-
ence of the free-trade, that, in conformity with Crom-
well's military policy, the country was dotted with
fortresses. Raised and armed according to the most
recent defensive science, they seemed to the eye less
formidable than the great feudal towers dispersed over
the country. But they were infinitely more powerful ;
for although mere earthen mounds, they were mounted
' Bruce, Appendix No. xxvii. p. cciii.
FREE-TRADE, 1654-60. 311
with heavy cannon, and held by garrisons well drilled
to serve them. When, as we shall see, the High-
landers were restrained, the industrious Lowlander
could raise agricultural produce and manufacture mer-
cantile commodities undeterred by the bitter misgiv-
ing that any night the whole fruits of his vigilance
and industry might disappear in pillage and destruc-
tion. Under these conditions, even in the very
few years while they lasted, the country prospered.
There was a theoretical discontent — a latent protes-
tation against the whole arrangement, and a loyal
desire to see King Charles II. restored. But it had
little active vitality ; and perhaps it was in human
nature that the material prosperity of the people
soothed such political irritation as came of mere
abstract principles, and preserved the general lull.
There is an interesting example of this spirit of
the immediately practical, of which the Protectorate
Government was full, in a document bearing the
date of 1656, called a ' Eeport by Thomas Tucker
upon the Settlement of the Eevenues of Excise and
Customs in Scotland.'^ In the language of the dealer
it might be called " taking stock " of Scotland's share
in the new partnership. The chief object was no
doubt to find and draw upon the most available
sources of revenue ; but the inquiry to this end
brought forth information valuable for other purposes.
In the words of the editor, it " contains some curious
and apparently very authentic information relative to
the trade and shipping of Scotland in the year 1656 ; "
affording, besides the proper details about the coUec-
' Printed and presented to the Bannatyne Club by John Archiliald
Murray, afterwards Lord Murray, in 1825.
312 COMMONWEALTH.
tion of the customs aud excise, some account " of
every harbour and creek upon the coast to which
vessels resorted at that time."
Tucker's details — especially about shipping, -which
are the most specific — afford curious elements for com-
parison. The trade with the New World had yet
hardly opened on the west coast, and the great bulk
of the shipping was along the edge of the German
Ocean, where there was an open and straight seaway
to Denmark, Korth Germany, Holland, and Scotland's
ancient ally. The great trading centre was the Firth
of Forth, and Fifeshire had more shipping than any
other county. The small shallow creeks, unfit to
furnish harbours for the large vessels of more recent
times, were a shelter and haven to the small craft of
that day, as they are to the fishing-busses of the
present.
Leith was, in the eye of Cromwell's commissioner,
the natural centre of trade and civilisation, and the
hope of Scotland's future. The place was strongly
fortified by Cromwell ; it was far more suitable for his
school of fortification than the castle rock of Edin-
burgh. The commissioner's comment on the two has
some interest as a touch of the utilitarian spirit of
the age : " The town of Leith is of itself a pretty
small town, and fortified about ; having a convenient
dry harbour into which the Firth ebbs and flows every
tide, and a convenient quay on the one side thereof, of
a good length, for landing of goods. This place
formerly, and so at this time, is indeed a storehouse,
not only for her own traders, but also for the mer-
chants of the city of Edinburgh, this being the port
thereof. And did not that city, jealous of her own
COMMERCE, SHIPPING, AND REVENUE, 1654-60. 313
satety, obstruct and impede the growing of this phice,
it would, from her skive, in a few years become her
rival. For as certainly the Castle of Edinburgh did
first give the rise and gT^)^^'th to that city, by inviting-
people in the time of their intestine troubles to plant
and settle there, for settling themselves under the
strength and security thereof; so now, in time of peace,
the situation of this toAvn, and all other circumstances
concurring to the rendering it fit to prove the most
eminently mercantile and trading place of the whole
nation, would soon invite the inhabitants of that city
to descend from their proud hill into the more fruit-
ful plain, to be filled with the fulness and fatness
thereof." 1
There were fourteen vessels in Leith — the largest
number in any port in Scotland. Three ports next in
order, as each possessing twelve vessels, make a con-
junction, much altered in later times — Montrose,
Kirkcaldy, and Glasgow. But capacities for trade are
appearing in the " ^"enice of the west " : " This town,
seated in a pleasant and fruitful soil, and consisting
of four streets handsomely built in form of a cross, is
one of the most considerable burghs of Scotland, as
well for the structure as trade of it. The inhabitants,
all but the students of the college which is here, are
traders and dealers — some for Ireland with small
smiddy coals in open boats from four to ten tons,
from Avlience they bring hoops, rungs, barrel-staves,
meal, oats, and butter ; some for France ^^•ith plad-
ding, coals, and herring, of which there is a great fish-
ing yearly in the western sea, for which they return
salt, paper, rosin, and prunes ; some to Korway for
314 COMMONWEALTH.
timber ; and every one with their neighbours the
Highhmders, who come hither from the Isles and
western parts."
There is a brief note of the germ — puny and
precarious — of the great Transatlantic trade of the
Clyde : " Here hath likewise been some who have
adventured as far as Barbadoes ; but the losses they
have sustained by reason of their going out and
coming home late every year, have made them dis-
continue going thither any more." ^
In Renfrew there are " three or four boats of five or
six tons apiece ; " and " in Irvine three or four, the
biggest not exceeding sixteen tons." There is no
more shipping on the west coast, but it is noticed
that English traders are frequenting the estuary of
the Clyde.
It fell to Mr Tucker and the other commissioners
of the revenue to deal with a curious social pheno-
menon. The revenue was farmed, so that its collection
fell to the highest bidder who was in a position to
carry his offer into eflfect. The competition was keen,
but of a j)eculiar kind. It worked itself into con-
junction with the feudal spirit of the country. The
great man, or the man Avho was trying to make him-
self great by aggrandising himself in lands and
seignorial rights, sought the power of collecting the
taxes as a valuable acquisition for furthering his
objects. It made a material addition to the power he
had before. Now, however, the customs were to be
recast, and, with the new duty of excise, to be used
for materially increasing the revenue. To this end,
on a mere pecuniary consideration, English adventur-
1 Page 38.
COMMERCE, SHIPPING, AND REVENUE, 1654-60. 315
ers would be the more suitable farmers, but they did
not know the nature of the people : —
"Therefore, duly weighing as well the quality of
the farmers as having a regard to the temper and
humour of the people, and finding part of the farmers
to be English and not acquainted either with the
thing, persons, or places, and the rest Scots, and in
this respect more qualified and less obnoxious, but
naturally rigid exacters, apt to avenge private quarrels
or discontents under colour or pretext of public em-
ployment, and most of them generally strangers to
the particular work in which they engaged. And
considering withal the people on the other side,
through poverty and an innate habit of their own, to
be cross, obstinate, clamorous, and prone to apprehend
every action an oppression or injury, and again to
repel both either Avith noise or force. "^
The commissioners resolved to try a middle course
— to farm the revenues, but to reserve to themselves
that ultimate power of enforcement which they saw
to be productive of many social irritations : " To
reserve the judicial part in themselves, and to give
the farmer only the collective power, which was
done accordingly."
The result of this project was utter failure ; and as
the Commonwealth could not aff"ord to lose a revenue
for the sake of social quiet and good fellowship, the
farmers were, in the significant language of the com-
missioner, " let loose " again upon their natural victims
and enemies : " Very few or none would pay any
moneys, suffer any distress, or obey any summons ;
insomuch that the commissioners were enforced to
Page 12.
3l6 COMMONWEALTH.
retract their former resolutions, and to let the farmers
loose to the full execution of all the powers and
authorities of the several Acts and ordinances, but
against and upon such only as should refuse to give
due obedience, that so they might have a just sense
that the commissioners did still retain and should have
continued their first tenderness towards them." The
result was, that " every one, acted by his fear and the
expectation he had of suffering the penalties of the
law, began to provide for his own peace and security
by a timely conforming, and so made way for the
more easy and vigorous carrying on of things in the
future." 1
We have here a very expressive token of the power-
fu] pressure attained in the seventeenth century by
the feudal system in Scotland, where indeed it was
at all times more effective than the prerogative or
any other central authority. Perhaps those who were
so eager to farm the revenue expected thus to obtain
comjjensation for the loss of the feudal prerogatives
in their old established form. Among the projects
of the Protectorate completed upon paper was the
sweeping away of the whole complex machinery of
the feudal system in Scotland. In the first place,
there was to be a restraint on the feudal power of
the territorial chiefs, by abolishing those portions
of their authority which made them judges in
courts of law, and entitled them to the military
attendance of their vassals. In mere technical lan-
guage, it was the abolition of heritable jurisdictions
and of military service. It left to the feudal superior
all that he was entitled to in the shape of beneficiary
1 Pase 13.
ABOLITION OF FEUDALITY, 1654-60. 317
profit — all that consisted in money, or civil services
convertible into money. The vassals holding under
any deeds or charters were to continue to hold "by
and under such yearly rents, boons, and annual ser-
vices as are mentioned and due by any deeds, patents,
charters, or enfeoffments now in being, of the respec-
tive lands therein expressed, or by virtue thereof
enjoyed, without rendering, doing, or performing any
other duty, vassalage, or command Avhatsoever."
Thus, upon paper at least, the Government of the
Protectorate achieved that social reconstruction
which, on its actually coming into effect after the
suppression of the insurrections, received unanimous
applause from politicians and historians.'- But the
restraint of the military and judicial power of the
feudal lords was not all. Commerce in land was to
be freed from impediments. Tracts of land were
in a state of transition from " roums," or realms, as
they used to be called, to be estates in the modern
sense of the term. The feudal system was a heavy
burden on commerce in this sort of valuable property.
The system had been invented for military tenure, and
was hostile to anything that deprived the overlord of
his proper vassal. The person who desired to pur-
chase an estate had hence heavy impediments in his
way, and he could only overcome them by a sort of
bribery, or the payment of a "casualty." The old
military notion clung so closely to all questions of
land-right, that the person who had thus got over the
feudal difficulties, and put himself in possession as
actual owner and occupant of the land, was said to
' The ordinance will be found in Scobell's Collection, and in the Ap-
pendix (No. xxvii. p. cciii) of Bruce's Report on the Union.
3l8 COMMONWEALTH.
have acquired it by " conquest," to distinguish him
from the hereditary successor to a family domain ;
and the term " conquest " has remained in use down
to the present time. Thus this project contemplated
not only the extinction of the military command over
their vassals belonging to the superiors, and also of
their jurisdiction over them as hereditary judges, but
it went still farther. It cut away all the nomen-
clature and usages of the system, so that even for the
mere purj)ose of accommodating the feudal system to
the commerce in land, there should be no such rela-
tion as sujDcrior and vassal.^ It enables one to realise
the breadth of such a project, to say that, after count-
less statutes modifying and adjusting the feudal
usages to modern utility, this conclusive extinction of
its vestiges is at the present moment making its way
through Parliament.
As in this measure, so in that of the Protectorate
— there was provision for everything that could be
' " That all and every the heritors and others, the persons aforesaid
and heirs, are and shall he for ever hereafter freed and discharged of
and from all suits, and appearing at or in any of their lords' or superiors'
courts of justiciary, regality, stewartry, barony, bailiary, heritable
sheriffship, heritable admiralty — all which together, with all other
offices, heritable or for life, are hereby abolished and taken away ; and
that all and every the heritors and persons aforesaid and their heirs are
and shall be for ever hereafter freed and discharged of and from all
military service and personal attendance upon any their lords or supe-
riors in expeditions or travels, and of all casualties of wards, lands
formerly held of the king and other superiors, and of the marriage,
single and double, avail thereof, nonentries, compositions for entries, and
of all rights and casualties payable if they be demanded only, or upon
the committing of any clause irritant ; and that the said heritors and
persons aforesaid be now and from henceforth construed, reputed,
adjudged, and declared free and acquitted thereof." — Bruce's Report on
the Union, p. ccx.
ABOLITION OF FEUDALITY, 1654-60. 319
deemed a vested interest, if it were in a shape to be
estimated in money. The investigations for the ac-
complishment of this revolution were probably what
revealed a valuable institution for facilitating and pro-
tecting the commerce in land in Scotland — an institu-
tion struggling now into existence in England, and
anticipated by Cromwell. This was the system of Re-
gistration. Its germ is in an institution of the Empire.
The notaries, Avho were imperial ofhcers, were bound
to keep protocol-books containing transcripts of the
deeds and documents prepared by them. On this
usage was raised a system of records of land-rights, in
which the record was the supreme title, not to be con-
tradicted by an unrecorded private deed.^ When
Cromwell attempted an imitation of this system
in England, he found that "the sons of Zeruiah,"
meaning the common lawyers, were too strong for
him. ^
These things testify to much enlightened fore-
thouoht ; but we must look both at what was given as
well as what was taken away, before we determine
that the great Protector Avas more than two hundred
years beyond his age. When he extinguished the
feudal powers throughout the country, he laid down
1 See " A Notice on the Subject of Protocol-books as connected with
Public Records," by David Laing, Esq., F.S.A., Scot. ; Proceedings of
the Soc. of Ant. of Scotland, iii. 350.
^ The method in which this strength was sho^vn is described by Lud-
low with thorough distinctness : " Upon the debate of registering deeds
in each county, for want of which, within a certain time fixed after the
sale, such sales should be void, and being so registered, that land should
not be subject to any incumbrance. This word 'incumbrance' was so
managed by the lawyers that it took up three months' time before it
could be ascertained by the committee."— Vol. i. 370.
330 COMMONWEALTH.
ill it tweuty-eight fortresses, and kept in them per-
maneut garrisons ont of an army varying from five to
nine thonsaud men. AYliile this was the necessary
alternative, it is an open question whether the time
for the entire abolition of feudality in Scotland had
yet come. At the same time, an organisation re-
sembling the Justice of Peace system in England
was created for Scotland by an ordinance for the
erection of Courts Baron, to be administered by that
class whose feudal authority had been suppressed.
The central power of the new Government enabled
it to accomplish other measures of advantage unc^ues-
tionable. There had been some early attempts to
open postal communication between England and
Scotland with but slight success. In 1656 the ser^-ice
Avas organised, in fulfilment of reasons well and briefly
put thus : —
"Whereas it hath been found by experience, that
the erecting and settling of one General Post-Olfice,
for the speedy conveying, carrying, and recarrying
letters by post to and from all places within England,
Scotland, and Ireland, and into several parts bej-ond
the seas, hath been and is the best means, not only to
maintain a certain and constant intercourse of trade
and commerce bet'ndxt all the said places, to the gxeat
benefit of the people of these nations, but also to con-
vey the public despatches, and to discover and prevent
many dangerous and wicked designs which have been
and are daily contrived against the peace and welfare
of this Commonwealth." —
By the ordinance so announced, the organisation
was put under the direction of " a postmaster-
general " and "a comptroller of the post-office." A
DEALING WITH THE CHURCH, 1653-58. 321
scale of charges was established, among which the
IKjstage of a single letter between Scotland and London
was fixed at fourpence.^
The plan for the Union was accompanied by efforts
to reconstruct the Church. The closing of the General
Assembly was like clearing the inhabitants out of a
street on fire.^ But if the clergy were saved from a
conflagration, mischief of another kind must arise if
they were left unregulated to act separately, or in small
groups as presbyteries. There must be some central
power to regulate the action of these separate corpora-
tions, or of the respective clergy if they were to act
in isolation, otherwise there would be infringements
and strife. There were questions about temporalities,
and the due appointment to these along with the
functions of the ministry, which could not be left to
spontaneous action in each parish. Some central tri-
bunal, whether clerical or secular, must adjust them.
But what suggested the closing of the Assembly
left difficulties in the path of any adjustment. The
two contending parties — the Resolutioners and Pro-
testers— though restrained from flying at each other's
throats, continued, in their compulsory restraint, to
nourish their hatred of each other, and were each pre-
pared to recommence the war of extirpation whenever
' Ordinance of the Protector in Parliament, 17th December 1656.
^ The historian of the sufferings entered this memorandum in his
private note-book : " I find some that favour the memory of Oliver Crom-
well, excuse the acting of Cromwell in this Church, and say they were
out of kindness. That he would not suffer any more General Assemblies
to sit alter 1652, because they would have deposed one another, and the
rent would have still increased. That he indicted fasts and thanksgiv-
ini'S himself, and prescribed the days and causes, out of a regard to the
peace of the Church, because, as he thought, the Protesters and Resolu-
tioners would make each other causes of their fasting." — Analecta, i. 274.
VOL. VII. X
322 COMMONWEALTH.
a clear arena was opened to them. For the ends of
the Protector's Government there was a perplexing
cross - play of compatibilities and incompatibilities
between the two. The Protesters, who abjnred Charles
Stewart, seemed in that act to be open for alliance
with the Commonwealth ; but they abjured also all
interference by the civil power with that great area
of dominion claimed by them for the authority of the
spiritual power, and these claims were not easily com-
patible with the supremacy of the Commonwealth.
The other party were more amenal)le to civil rule ; but
what they wanted was the civil rule of the old Scots
line of kings. Cromwell called up leading men from
both sides, and held conferences with them. As these
discussions had no distinctive permanent influence,
they are not likely to interest any but those Avho study
the more obscure intricacies of Church history. What
appears on the surface is, that Cromwell found the
Resolution party the more tractable of the two. One
member of this party, afterwards famous, began at
this time to found an influence which helped him into
the sinister path of his celebrity — this was James
Sharp. He either was, or made himself appear to be,
so well listened to at the Protectorate Court, that he
was believed to be the proper man to represent his
party there when any crisis should come. The end of
the conferences was, that an ordinance was issued in
1654, "taking away," as a succinct clerical author puts
it, "the ordinary powers of Church courts previously
established, and dividing Scotland into five precincts,
in every one of which a few ministers, with others,
were appointed to give testimony in order to the ad-
mission of ministers (four being sufficient for this
DEALING WITH THE CHURCH, 1653-58. 323
charge in every province), so that ten ministers and
ten other persons might exercise the power of plant-
ing churches for the whole of Scotland." ^
The Government had the command of the stipend,
the manse, and the church itself ; and if it could not
well raise the question how far a suspected minister
should be permitted to retain possession, it could put
a practical veto on the new man wherever there came
a vacancy. That the Protesting or Eemonstrant party
were hostile to Charles Stewart, while the Resolu-
tioners befriended him, naturally influenced the result,
even although the Government woidd have preferred
alliance with the Eesolutioners. Thus Baillie in his
lamentations says : " When a very few of the Remon-
strants and Independent party will call a man, he gets
the kirk and the stipend ; but when the presbytery,
and well near the whole congregation, call and admit,
he must preach in the fields or in a barn without
stipend." ^ The question of praying for the king,
naturally declared to be an offence against the Pro-
tectorate Government, forced these questions of eccle-
siastical politics on those most desirous to let them
alone. This was a negative duty to which the Re-
monstrants were ready to conform. But the old
Covenanting party held by him whom they had them-
selves made a Covenanting king, and in many in-
stances sacrificed themselves by continuing to pray
for him by name.
Some difficulties, created by their political condition,
in reference to one great religious principle where
they were in harmony, may have a harsh sound in the
' Principal Lee's Lectures on the Church of Scotland, ii. 376.
^ Letters, ii. 371.
324 COMMONWEALTH.
present day ; but it is one tliat ought to be listened to,
if we would understand fully the spirit of the period.
Both parties had a hearty horror of the new doctrine of
toleration. But when the Remonstrants sought favour
Avith the existing rulers, were they not conniving
Avith that swarm of sectaries in which the detested
doctrine had been born and bred ? The difficulty was
rendered all the more grotesque by this, that the
Remonstrant party were far more fierce and vehement
in their testimony against toleration than the old
Presbyterians, who had something like a misgiving
towards a very clamorous proclamation of that pecu-
liar article of their faith. So far on in the Church's
l)ondage as the 11th of April 1659, Baillie says:
" Understanding a design of the Remonstrants, some
weeks before the Synod, to have a petition sent up to
the Protector and Parliament against toleration," he
calls on his friends to beware of that design, giving
reasons, of which a portion will suffice : " This peti-
tion will be a formal address to the present power as
the supreme magistrate, which no Church judicature
in Scotland had ever yet attempted." " The petition
to preserve that part of our Covenant which tolera-
tion destroys, with silence of all other articles of our
Covenant Avhich now are openly laid aside and de-
stroyed, does avow our contentment with, or neglect
of, the violation of the other ai'ticles against which we
do not petition." He suspects that such a testimony
against toleration cannot be " full," looking to those
it is addressed to, since " we must be silent of Inde-
pendents, Anabaptists, and Erastians, these being the
chief statesmen who must agent our petition." ^
' Letters, &c., iii. 393.
glencairn's expedition, 1653-54. 325
The somewhat gloomy quietness following the paci-
fication and the firm establishment of the Protectorate
was disturbed by an affair known as " Glencairn's
Expedition." William Cuningham, Lord Glencairn,
applied to the exiled Charles for a commission to com-
mand such a force as he might o-ather in Scotland.
The careless exile could see no harm to himself in
granting such a request, and in August 1653 Glen-
cairn appeared in the ^Yest Highlands as the royal
commander-in-chief The project at once declares
itself as an imitation of Montrose's expedition of ten
years earlier, but it was a very bad imitation. Such
achievements depend on the man who can invent the
most effective combination for the occasion, and arc
not available to the mere imitator. The Highlanders
were of course ready to join in hostility to a Govern-
ment which brought them under the direst of all rules
in compelling them to be at peace and abstain from
plunder. Several heads of clans brought a follow-
ing with them. Glengary came with two hundred,
Cameron of Lochiel and Lord Athole with a hundred
horse and twelve hundred foot. But it was said that
the Highland leaders seemed more desirous to com-
mand than to obey — in short, they did not find them-
selves under the master who could handle a Highland
army, and were therefore useless.
He was superseded, and the command conferred on
Middleton, who had been originally intended for it.
Lie was a man of a soldierly type who had seen hard
service, and was not, as we shall have opportunity of
seeing, very scrupulous. When he arrived at the
camp a muster was ordered, "that he might examine
how the men were armed and mounted, and know
326 COMMONWEALTH.
with certainty wliat he had to depend upon. They
were mustered, accordingly, about the middle of
]\Iarch ; and their number consisted of three thousand
five hundred foot and one thousand five hundred horse,
three hundred of which were not well mounted or
armed."
The new general was presently Avitness to a scene
that exemplified the character of the army handed
over to him. It was at a banquet given by Glencairn
at his headquarters at Dornoch. The entertainer
called a toast to " the gallant army " which he and
his friends " had raised out of nothing." Immediately
Sir George Monro started from his seat, and interrupt-
ing Lord Glencairn, said: "By God! the men you speak
of are no other than a pack of thieves and robbers — ■
in a short time I will show you other sort of men."
There was a competition for the honour of resenting
this, but the quarrel remained between Glencairn and
Monro. Then follows the delivery of a challenge with
a picturesqueness that might suit a novel-writer.
There is a merry supper with the Laird of Ducherie,
his daughter playing on the virginals — the piano of
the day. Monro's brother appears, and is heartily
received by Glencairn, who " saluted him at the hall-
door as being very welcome, and made him sup with
him, placing him at the head of the table next the
laird's daughter. The whole company were very
merry. Immediately after supper he told Monro that
he would give him a spring if he would dance — which
accordingly he did, the laird's daughter playing.
Whilst the rest were dancing, his lordship stepped
aside to the window and Monro followed. They did
not sj)eak a dozen words together." Thus they con-
glencairn's expedition, 1653-54. 327
certed a duel fought with bloody bitterness, and only
not fatal because Monro was disabled and the hand of
the other held from slaying him.
One advantasje came from a change of commanders.
The new man was not to be responsible for keeping
what had never been gained. Accordingly, like a
new steward entering in possession, he rendered an
account of the condition of the enterprise, and thus
dispelled some flattering visions : " Exaggerated reports
had been sent to Holland of the number of men in arms
— they were only prophetically, not actually, true ; and
if Middleton had not hastened over, and previously
sent Major-General Drummond, things had not lived
long." " Middleton has a hard task to a great dis-
advantage, but has hitherto managed it so well that
there is no doubt of success. The business, although
its growth is not hasty, is in constitution healthy and
strong ; nor is its stature so contemptible as to expose
it to scorn." Such was the tenor of the reports to
the exiled Court, and evidently they were not likely
to excite hope or enthusiasm.^
Middleton, a thorough child of the Thirty Years'
War — an apt pupil in its school of cruelty and rapacity
— was to do something to conciliate the Covenanters.
He had experience of their ways when he was excom-
municated, and had to do penance in sackcloth to re-
gain his rights as a free citizen; he was to have
fm'ther experience of them as the hand by which they
were to be scourged when his master regained his own.
Of this consummation the very policy he was to pur-
1 Account of the Proceedings of Middleton's Forces in Scotland ;
Macray's Calendar of Clarendon State Papers (prescribed in the Bod-
leian Library), ii. 371.
328 COMMONWEALTH.
sue is ominously suggestive of what Avas then to come :
" It is hoped to induce the ministers to preach against
the rebels and undeceive the people, whose affections
have been strangely won by their smoothness ; but,
nevertheless, Mr Presbyter will never be allowed
again to sit at the helm as he formerly did, although,
as things now are, too much severity and open dis-
avowing that way would be very destructive."^
Monk took this affair with his usual deliberate cau-
tion. He detached a force of three thousand — six
hundred of them being horse — to deal with the
Royalist army. It went in two divisions — one led by
himself, the other by General Morgan. Their policy
was to keep strong parties well supplied at Inverness,
Perth, and the other gates of the Highlands, so that
Middleton's army should be driven back into the moun-
tains if they attempted to reach the low country. This
force was sufficient easily to crush the Royalists' force if
it could be reached. Monk's troops were not well suited
for Highland warfare, and therefore wisely attempted
it as little as possible. But the incapacity of their
enemy gave them an opportunity. By some blunder-
ing on both sides, Morgan's party and the Highlanders
stumbled against each other on the banks of Loch-
garry. In the words of the historian of the expedi-
1 Macray's Calendar of Clarendon State Papers, ii. 371. Middleton
seems to have tried his hand on something like a testimony, but with
poor success. A. copy of " a declaration hastily drawn up by Middle-
ton " is sent to the Court, with an explanation that " he showed it
yesterday to some of the young Presbyters who had a meeting in
Thurso, who, after a perusal and two or three deep ' gryes,' said there
was not enough concerning religion. Middleton replied that it was
only occasional, and not intended for a set declaration which leaves them
in hopes of great performances that way. But other friends advise him
to be very tender there — to use only general words, and not to make it
his practice to communicate such things." — Ibid., 373.
glencairn's expedition, 1653-54. 329
tion, " The king's army marched to Lochgarry, near
which there was a small town where they were to
encamp all night. But Morgan, who intended to rest
in the same place, had gained it before Middleton,
and having no intelligence of each other, the king's
vanguard and Morgan's outer guard immediately en-
gaged. There was no ground for drawing up; for on
the one side the loch hemmed them in, and on the,
other the ground was all morass, so that no horse
could ride it ; and the way by the loch-side was so
narrow that two or three only could ride abreast.
Middleton, j&nding this, ordered his rear to face about,
so that our van became our rear ; and the English
gentlemen in our army being then in the rear, did
behave most gallantly. Morgan pursued very close.
At last he made himself master of the general's
sumptuary, where was his commission and all his
other papers. He pressed so hard that the king's
army ran as fast as they could and in great confusion.
There was no great slaughter, as night came on soon
after they were engaged. Every man shifted for him-
self and went where he best liked." ^
Middleton, tired of such work, returned to the
exiled Court ; hence Glencairn had to finish the pro-
' Military Memoirs, 138. It is scarcely possible to connect with this
affair the preposterous news received by the exiled Court, and yet there
is no other to which it will better fit : " It is certain that the Marquis of
Montrose and Viscount Dudhope charged and routed Monk, who returned
from Stirling to Dalkeith, where he stiU is curing his wounds. Eighty-
three wounded officers are in Heriot's Hospital. Montrose lost his left
thumb. The Earls of Atholl and Kinnoul fell on a reinforcement that
was marching from St Johnstons to assist Monk, killed five hundred,
and dispersed the rest. At the same tinie Middleton routed all the
English forces which were by the head of the river Spey, and killed
and took three troops of Lambert's regiment called 'the Brazen Wall.'
The fugitives sheltered themselves under Dnnnottar Castle, not daring
to trust to the foolish fortifications they had begun about Aberdeen.
33° COMMONWEALTH.
ject lie had begun. He profiered terms to Monk, who
received them in a pacific spirit. There was a break
in the negotiations, and at that point an opportunity
occurred for showing that the insurrection had still
life in it. A party of dragoons was quartered in the
town of Dumbarton. A body of Highlanders forded
the river Leven and surprised them, so that they fled
to the castle, leaving their horses and provisions to the
assailants. It was the one success in the expedition,
and was credited with the effect of bringing j\Ionk to
good terms : " The conditions were, that all the officers
and soldiers should be secure in their lives and for-
tunes, and should have passes to carry them to their
respective homes, they behaving themselves peaceably
in their journeys. The officers were allowed their
horses and arms, and to wear their swords always.
The soldiers were allowed to keep their horses, but
were to deliver up their arms and to receive the full
value for the same, which was to be fixed by two men
chosen by my lord and the other two by Mouk."^ A
Middleton is going south. Men see he is in earnest, having imprisoned
Sir George Monro for raising a mutiny and drawing his sword on the
Earl of Glencairn. It is thought he will have above sixteen thousand
horse and foot at a general rendezvous between St Johnstons and Stirling
the 10th of this month, besides those in the west and south with Ken-
more and Sir Arthur Forbes. There is not an. Englishman between
the Forth and the Tay except one hundred and twenty-five in Burnt-
island Castle, who dare not look out. All this news comes by persons
who came nine days ago from Burntisland. The Scots make inroads
into England as far as Newcastle, and receive kind entertainment from
the country people." — "Intelligence from various Places, copied by
John Nicholas ; " Calendar, Clarendon Papers, ii. 376.
^ Military Memoirs, 185. The authority thus cited and chiefly relied
on for the facts of this insurrection is ' Military Memoirs of the
great Civil War, being the Military Memoirs of John Gwynne, and an
Account of the Earl of Glencairn's Expedition,' &c., 4to, 1822. Edited
by Sir Walter Scott.
glencairn's expedition, 1653-54. 331
spirit of conciliation is conspicuously visible in these
terms. Before its dispersal the disorderly Highland
camp was brightened by a visit from a hero of romance
— Colonel Vegan he is called by the historian of the
expedition ; but he is better known to the world as
Captain Wogan, the name he holds in Clarendon's
History, where his adventures are told. He took a
small party of devoted Eoyalists who marched with
him through England and Scotland in the guise of
troopers of the Commonwealth, and thus reached den-
cairn's camp with "near a hundred gentlemen well
armed and mounted." He brought with him a wound
caught in an affair " with a troop of the Brazen- Wall
Regiment, as they called themselves;" and from unskil-
ful treatment, as it was said, died in Glencairn's camp.^
So high ran hopes and expectations about Glencairn's
expedition that Charles professed his intention to join
it. He seems only to have been stopped in time, when
the precise and unassuming reports from Middleton
were received. It was well for himself that he remained
in safety in Paris, since the result of all rational calcu-
lation from the tenor of events is, that he would have
been taken. ^ There is another feature of some in-
' " Middleton made a short harangue, passionately lamenting Colonel
Wogan, whose memory all men here reverence, and who perished either
by the ignorance or villanj^ of his chirurgeun." — Calendar of Clarendon
Papers, ii. 371. For help to all the authorities on the Wogan affair, see
the Boscobel Tracts, p. 42.
' Macray's Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers (preserved in the
Bodleian Library), Nos. 1468, 1480, 1713. The chief of Glengary
writes to the royal exile to this effect : " Although on Middleton's arrival
their forces were not so strong as possibly they had been reported,
yet they are now in better condition ; and the king's presence, which is
desired by most of his faithful subjects, would shortly put them in a
condition to deal equally with the enemy, while without it they will
have no governing of themselves." — No. 1944. He wisely remained away.
332 COMMONWEALTH.
terest in this affair. The Lord Lorn, the son of the
Marquess of Argyle, professed to befriend it. We find
him coming; to Glencairn as a friend, who would be
an ally if he could raise his father's clan ; and he was
in correspondence with the exiled Court at Paris,
receiving the thanks of Charles for his proffers.^
It would seem that the boastful hopes of the
Royalists were so far echoed in the apprehensions of
the Government, that eighteen thousand men were
available in Scotland. At the time when the affair
came to an end the force was reduced to nine thou-
sand. Down to the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury the " wild Highlander " never was so effectually
bridled as during the remaining years of the Pro-
tectorate. There was a great fortress at Inverness
for his special government. But we shall have per-
haps an exaggerated account of it, if we take the
impression of a trooper in the Protectorate army
speaking of it in the year 1658: "North and by
east, near the forcible stream of the Ness, stands the
fortress or pentagon, drawn out by regular lines, built
all with stone, and girt about with a graff that com-
modes it with a convenient harbour. The houses in
this fair fortress are built very Ioav, but uniform, and
the streets broad and spacious, with avenues at inter-
but he wrote a letter destined for the Moderator of the General Assem-
bly, if such a person could he found, desiring him to send " such able,
faithful, and discreet ministers into the army as may draw down God's
blessing upon them" (No. 1709).
' Macray's Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers, Nos. 1480, 1747.
" Lord Lorn, in a letter to the lieutenant-general about six weeks since,
expressed abundance of zeal to the king's service. He has a consider-
able force with him, and therefore it will be no policy alisolutely to re-
fuse him ; if there be just ground to fear him, the only way will be to
labour to get him into their power." — No. 1944.
CONCLUSION OF THE PROTECTORATE, 1658-60. 333
vals for drilling of foot and drawing up horse. I must
confess such and so many are the advantages and
conveniences that belong to this citadel it would be
thought fabulous if but to enumerate them ; for that
end I refer myself to those who have inspected her
magazines, providoes, harbours, vaults, graffs, bridges,
sally-ports, cellars, bastions, horn-works, redoubts,
counterscarps, &c." ^ There was a responding fort at
the upper end of Loch Ness, and — most astounding
phenomenon of all to the natives — communication was
opened between them by a ship of Avar cruising on the
loch. The same writer describes, with much flowery
eloquence, its removal overland from the Moray
Firth by "a regiment — or it may be two — at that
time quartered near Inverness, who by artifice had
fastened thick cables to her forecastle, and then they
got levers and rollers of timber, which they spread at
a distance one before another." -
Neither the united Parliament nor the new Church
polity had a practical growth carrying any touches of
its spirit into the institutions of later times ; and,
unlike the political project, the ecclesiastical was ac-
companied by no secondary influence of a beneficent
kind, such as the opening of trade between the tAvo
countries, to commend it to the sympathies of an
ase in which it would otherwise be forgotten.
Cromwell's immediate and temporary influence, both
on Church and State in Scotland, had in it much of
that character which he claimed for his position. The
country was in a state of riot — a constable was wanted
to put it in order and keep it so, and he accepted
of the post. But the constable is at all times more
1 Frank's Northern Memoirs, 202. " Ibid,, 199.
334 COMMONWEALTH.
tolerated than liked. To those even whom he pro-
tects he is the emblem of forced obedience ; and when
they see him on his stiff walk, with his suspicious eye
and his baton of control, they sigh for the good old
days when courtesy and deference preserved order in
the village, and the squire was respected for his an-
cient pedigree and his personal amiability. Then
when the Protectorate passed to Oliver's son, it was
no longer the necessary constable, but a question of
change of dynasty.
The loyalty that only muttered under the stern rule
that was over now spoke fairly out. It was in Novem-
ber 16.59 that Monk began his renowned march to
London. For all the famed inscrutability of his char-
acter, the Scots evidently knew the errand on which
he had gone. There was so good an understanding
between them that he could withdraw the army from
their neighbourhood. He called together an assembly
of representative men from the counties, who so far
promoted his undertaking, whatever it might be, that
they aided him with a considerable sum of money,
which might either be called an anticipation of the
taxes to come, or an advance on their security. At
their meeting, whatever was spoken beyond compli-
ments and expressions of good-fellowship, referred
to the support of the Parliamentary authority in each
country. The general knew the opinion of the men he
was dealing with ; he accepted of co-operation and
aid from them ; he was able to do what they desired,
and the bargain was as complete as a bargain without
words can be. Had Monk done otherwise than as
he did, he would certainly have incurred a charge of
dissimulation or apostasy.
CHAPTER LXXVI.
Social progress from t\}Z Reformation to
i\}t Restoration.
LITERATURE DECAY OF LATIN LITERATURE — PASSES FROM
A LIVING TO A DEAD LANGUAGE — RISE OF VERNACULAR
LITERATURE POETRY HUME — DRUMMOND — SIR ROBERT
AYTOUN — BALLAD LITERATURE — SONGS NATIONAL MUSIC
SCIENCE NAPIER OF MERCHISTON — GREGORY — ART JAMESON
THE PAINTER FATE OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE
BARONIAL AND STREET ARCHITECTURE PROGRESS OF WEALTH
CONDITION OF THE TOWNS NOTICES OF SCOTLAND BY VISI-
TORS THE MORALITY OF THE PEOPLE THE SUPERSTITIONS
AS THE DARK SIDE OF THE SOCIAL SYSTEM MALIGNANT IN-
FLUENCE OF BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT DIABOLICAL POSSESSIONS.
Having reached a period of calm, with the conscious-
ness that fresh troubles will speedily demand exclusive
attention, the opportunity is suitable for a retrospect
on the social conditions and fluctuations attending a
hundred years of the country's history.^
^ It is sometimes said that the liistory of a country is imperfectly
written if it do not in the narrative reveal the social condition of the
people hrought forward to act upon its stage. This may he so, but most
ordinary narrators are apt to feel that there are characteristics of a
people too placid and leisurely in their growth to he easily put into com-
panionship with others born of violence, fanaticism, or craft. At all
events, if there are morsels which the skill of an author is insufficient to
weave into his narrative, the best he can do is to stop at a halting-place
and pick them up.
336 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
The great impulse to literature and learning accom-
panying the Reformation had not yet expired, though
in the stormy atmosphere it had lived in for fiftj^
years it was evidently dwindling towards extinction.
Yet even among the men foremost in its acrid discus-
sions were many Avho had a name far beyond their
own country in the theological or polemical literature
of the day, and who published the results of their
labours abroad in the language which still made the
learned of all Europe kin to each other. Among these
were David Calderwood the historian, John Brown,
commonly known as " Brown of Wamphray," Samuel
Itutherford, David Dickson, and Piobert Baillie, with
whom we have had many opportunities of commun-
ing.^ The cousin to whom he wrote the letter cited
1 It is pleasant to find Baillie, in the hours of his darkest depression
from the fate of his lieloved Church, finding relief in the republic of
foreign letters. To Middelburg he writes, desiring his cousin Spang, a
minister there, to send him some morsels of periodical literature written
in French, but published in Holland, where it evaded the censorship.
And then : " I pray you, in your first to Voetius, remember my hearty
service to him for his kind and prolix answer to my letter. Try if he
has any return either from Buxtorf or Golius about my motion to them :
we all long for a new enlarged edition of the Bibliothek, and a third
volume of his Theses. I am informed that there is no man fitter to draw
a philosophic cursus than his own son ; will j-ou try if he can be per-
suaded to it ? Wlio now is in by for any service ? What is Heidanua for
a man ? What has come of Morns and Blondell ? Is there no man who
after Spanheim does mind the controversy with Amiraud ? As long
since I desired you to gather the adversarie pieces of Voetius and Mare-
sins, and send them to us — do it yet. AVhat is my good friend Apol-
lonius doing ? Is there no more of Bochartus' or Henricus' Philippus
come out 1 That the more willingly you may give me an account of all
this, behold I am at the labour to let you know how all our affairs stand
here.
" To myself the Lord is still very good, continuing my health, wealth,
credit, welfare of all my six children, assistance in every part of my calling ;
blessed be His name." — Letters, &c., iii. 31L But it was not well with
his Zion. After having beheld triumph after triumph until lie grew be-
LITERATURE, 1560-1660. 337
below — William Spang — provided the sympathisers
in the Netherlands with a history of the recent trans-
actions in Scotland, conveyed to them in the language
of all scholars.^
Among other Presbyterian divines whose writings
are limited to their own vernacular were men with
eminent intellectual qualities ; such was the great
John Welch who married Knox's daughter. Though
he wrote in his own language, he threw himself into
the midst of the fundamental contests between the
old Church and the new; and he must have been an
accomplished linguist, since he ministered for some
time as a Huguenot pastor in France. There were
John Weems of Lathoker, Rol)ert Bruce, James
Durham, James Guthrie, the hero and martyr of the
Remonstrants, and George Gillespie, the " hammer
of the Malignants." ^ There was eminent over all
wildered with success, all was now subdued to the iron rule of the Com-
monwealth. In viewing the public side of such a man in his brawling
assemblies and perilous politics, and turning to his studies and his
domestic peace, we see how well a mind stored with intellectual wealth
is endowed with resources against the calamities of the times. His
correspondents, though their works now rest very peacefully on the
book-shelves, were noted divines in their day — chiefly in the sources of
study supplied from Oriental literature.
1 ' Rerum Nuper in Regno Scotise Gestaruni Historia, &c., per Irinsemn
PhUalethen Eleutherium,' Dantzic, 1641. This is apt to be confounded
with a little book called ' Motuum Britannicorum verax Cushi ex ipsis
Joabi et oculati testis prototypis totus translatus.' I have not been able
to discover the origin of this book. It is clear, from the abundance of its
local information, that the .Joab and eyewitness by whom either it was
written or its chief materials supplied, were in Scotland.
^ Of Gillespie Wodrow says : " He was one of the great men that
had a chief hand in penning our most excellent Confession of Faith and
Catechisms. He was a most grave and bold man, and had a most wonder-
ful gift given him for disputing and arguing." The end of a dispute
held by him with some of the promoters of the Engagement was that
" Glencairn said, ' There is no standing before this great and mighty
VOL. VIL Y
338 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
Alexander Henderson, selected for the distinction of
debating the great question of the day with the
king.
These men all belonged to a religious community
frequently oscillating between triumph and defeat —
a community of many transitions and interminable
contests. Among reliofious bodies of so restless a
temperament the trumpet is frequently and loudly
blown, and men are famous who but for adventitious
conditions would have been obscure. But whether it
were from the fruitful impulse of this restlessness or
not, it is certain tliat soon after the Reformation, and
down to the Restoration, there was a marked access
of intellect and zealous scholarship among the Pres-
byterian clergy of Scotland ; and the feature seems
the more worthy of note, that in the after -ages,
whether in depression or in triumph, the same Church
became intellectually barren.
The Episcopal Church was not without its literary
ornaments. Among these Ave may count Archbishop
Spottiswood, and, more eminent as scholars, the two
Bishops of Aberdeen, Patrick and John Forbes. There
was Leighton, destined for a high place in religious
literature, and Alexander Ross, a man of various
accomplishments and powers somewhat eccentrically
employed.
The foreign intellectual market continued to be
abundantly supplied from Scotland.^ The Latin lan-
guage, as a vehicle of literature and teaching, lingered
man.' He was called Malleus Malignantium ; and Mr Baillie, writing
to 6ome in this Church against Mr George Gillespie, said, ' He was truly
an ornament to our Church and nation.' " — Aiialecta, iii. 111.
' For notices of the learned Scots who became distinguished on the
Continent the author refers to his ' Scot Abroad,' \o\. ii.
LITERATURE, 1560-1660. 339
longer in Scotland than in England, for various obvi-
ous reasons. Until the Scot ambitious of an audience
could address his neighbours of England as well as his
own countrymen, he spoke in these to a narrow audi-
ence. With Latin he had the educated men of all the
world to speak to. The use of the language had
become so much a nature, that one sometimes finds a
Scots scholar, when laboriously endeavouring to ex-
press his meaning in not too provincial vernacular,
relieving himself by relapsing into the familiar Latin.
But as the use of the vernacular increased, the
Latin degenerated by a process of stiffening. As it
dropped out of living use by the great community
of scholars, it came at last to be the dead language
it is now called, and had to be artificially acquired.
In the days of Buchanan it had been purified from
the various barbaric forms into which it had been
twisted by the scholastic divines, the lawyers, and the
chroniclers, in whose hands it took generally a shape
warped by the peculiarities of their several native
languages. In the days of Buchanan it was both pure
and free, and open, as any man's native tongue is, to
the bold handling of a genius such as his. He was no
more under the dominion of the rules of prosody, and
no more excluded from the use of neologies legiti-
mately born of the genius of the language, than Ovid
and Catullus were. But the later men who aspired
to Latin versifying came gradually under the re-
straints in full force in later times, and their verses
mio-ht be accurate and canonical, but were not poetry.
In the collection of elegant extracts already mentioned
as containing the effusions of Andrew Melville and
his comrades — ' The Delicise Poetarum Scotorum ' —
340 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
we can estimate at a glance tlie contribution rendered
by (Scotland to tliis kind of literature. It may be
counted an open question, whether Arthur Johnston
shall be held to rise above the prosodical manufacture
into the region of the poet. The direct comparison
with Buchanan demanded in his translation of the
Psalms did much to prejudice his claim. Still there
are some touches of sweetness and beauty, in his less
ambitious efforts especially, M^here, like Ausonius, he
touches on incidents and scenes of local interest, —
as where he commemorates the tragedy of the burn-
ing of Frendraught, perpetrated near the door of his
own paternal home, or muses on the coincidence that
that home is touched by the shadow of the neighbour-
ing hill of Benochie when the midsummer sun is
setting behind it.
With examples of the vernacular prose literature of
Scotland, from Knox's time downwards, the reader of
these pages may perhaps have found himself rather
too abundantly supplied.
The Scottish poets of the early half of the seven-
teenth century were not many. Chief among them
were Drummond of Hawthornden, Sir William Alex-
ander, Sir Ptobert Aytoun, and Alexander Hume. A
community so small and obscure did not subject itself
to the rules of art coming in force in England for the
discipline of its larger literary republic. The few
Scottish poems of the day have thence a spirit of not
unpleasant freedom, which has recommended them to
the anarchical taste of the present generation.^ But
' Alexander Hume's poem of the " Day Estival," existing in obscurity,
as excluded from legitimate poetry by the canons of each succeeding
dynasty, has found itself in harmony with the poetical spirit of the pre-
POETRY, 1560-1660. 341
although the versification is free of many contem-
porary trammels of art, and is often devoted to the
description of natural objects, yet there is a certain
sent generation — so far, indeed, that a close parallel has been found be-
tween him and a great poet of the nineteenth century in their style of
imagery. It is the description, physical and social, of the land, blessed
by a hot summer day, following the course of daylight from sunrise to
sunset. The morning and the poem open together : —
"0 perfect light, whilk shed away
The darkness from the light,
And left ane ruler o'er the day,
Ane other o'er the night ;
Thy glory, when the day forth flies,
Mair vively does appear.
Nor at mid-day unto our eyes
The shining sun is clear.
The shadow of the earth anon
Removes and drawes by.
Syne in the east, when it is gone,
Appears a clearer sky."
Tlie birds are the earliest to feel the reviving influence, and when the
darkness is utterly dispersed by tlie sun, they and other elements of life
are in full career : —
"For joy the birds, with bolden throats.
Against his visage sheen,
Takes up their kindly music notes
In woods and gardens gi'een.
Up braids the careful husbandman
His cows and vines to see,
And every timeous artisan
In booth works busily.
The pastor quits the slothful sleep.
And passes forth with speed
His little cameo-nosfed sheep
And routing kie to feed."
Moving on towards the mid-day heat we have this sultry sketch : —
'^The time so tranquil is and still,
That nowhere shall ye find
Save on ane high and barren hill
The air of peeping wind.
All trees and simples, great and small,
That balmy leaf do beai',
Nor they were painted on a wall
No more they move or stir.
34- SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
pedantry or conventionalism in the selection of these
objects. The poet does not go forth dreaming on
what is around him, and telling his dream. He must
select and group his matter after such rules as have
prescribed the foreground, middle, and distance of a
legitimate picture, or the unities in a drama. It will
Calm is the deep and purpiire sefi.
Yea, smoother tlian the saud.
The wells that weltering wont to be
Are stable like the land.
Sa silent is the cecile air,
That every cry and call,
The hills and dales and forests fair
Again repeats them all.
The rivers fresh and caller streams
O'er rocks can softly rin;
The water clear like crystal seems.
And makes a pleasant din."
There are many other types of man and natnre endming the burning heat,
and then the day draws to a close :—
"The gloaming comes, the day is spent,
The sun goes out of sight,
And painted is the Occident
With pnrpour sanguine bright.
The scarlet nor the golden thread.
Who would their beauty try,
Are nothing like the colour red.
And beauty of the sky.
Our west horizon circular,
Era' time the sun be set,
Is all with rubies, as it were.
Or roses red o'erset.
What pleasure were to walk and see,
Endlong a river clear.
The perfect form of every tree
Within the deep appear ! "
Hume died minister of a country parish early in the seventeenth cen-
tury. The original edition of his ' Hymns and Sacred Songs, wherein
the right use of Poesy may be espied,' is very rare. It was reprinted by
the Bannatyne Club, and the " Day Estival" has been reprinted more than
once. It is in the third volume of Sibbald's ' Chronicle of Scottish
Poetry,' and in the ' Scottish Descriptive Poems,' edited by Leyden.
POETRY, 1560-1660. 343
perhaps make this characteristic more distinct to say,
that when we accompany a Scottish poet of the day,
who in natural and easy versification is describing
natural objects with much truth and vivacity, yet we
do not feel that we are in Scotland along with him.
This will show itself in the portions from Hume's poem
given in the preceding note, and one may read the
whole without finding anything in the descriptions to
mark the author as a Scotsman. In fact his sum-
mer day belongs to climes nearer the sun ; and only
to some memorable day of exceeding heat, scarcely
occurring once every year, would it be applicable in
Scotland.
It is in harmony with this, that there is nothing
made in these old poems of the wealth of varied na-
tional scenery, which has in late years given inspiration
to English as well as Scottish bards. It is not only
that negatively is this theme of poetry passed by, but
that in one instance there exists what may be termed
a positive protest against it as unworthy of poetic
treatment. It is the one instance where the poetry of
the period deals with scenes frequented now by annual
thousands of pilgrims in search of the picturesque, and
in that one instance the scenery is treated with deri-
sion. A certain freebooter named Diincan MacGregor
had long been a dreaded scourge in the straths leading
towards the central highlands of Perthshire and Angus.
He was at last trapped and brought to the stronghold
of the head of the Breadalbane Campbells, where the
bard divines his contemplations as he is awaiting the
final rope. He is ruminating on the old scenes dear
to his heart — the fair straths and fruitful carses where
his presence was murder and ruin — the savage recesses
344 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
of the rock where he hid his plunder and found shelter
for himself. The point of humour in the effort is, that
on scenes abhorred by poetry and civilisation the
rufSan becomes tenderly pensive. It is as if, when a
modern housebreaker has come to grief, his rumina-
tions should recall the shops and warehouses where he
has done his most distinguished feats as a cracksman,
and should pass from these to the horriljle dens in the
polluted regions of the great cities where he and his
like seek safety, — the whole being rendered in the
manner of Gray's ode on a distant view of Eton, or
Wordsworth's reminiscences at the fountain where his
heart was "idly stirred" by "the self-same sounds"
that he had heard, not alone, in days long past.-^
^ " Farewell, Breadalbane, and Loch Tay so sheen.
Farewell, Glenorchy, and Glenlyon baith ;
My death to yon will be but little skaitli.
Farewell, Glenalmond — garden of pleasance,
For many a flower have I frae you tane.
Farewell, Strathbran, and have remembrance
That thou wilt never mair see Duncan again.
Atholl, Strathtay, of my death be fain ;
For ofttimes I took your readiest gear,
Therefore for me see ye greet not one tear.
Farewell, Stratliern, most comely for to knaw,
Plenished with pleasant policies perclair ;
Of tower and town, standing fair in raw,
I rugged thy ribs, while oft I gart them roar.
Gar thy wives, yif thou wilt do no more,
Sing my dirirje after usum saricm,
For ofttimes I garred them alarum.
Farewell, Monteith, where oft I did repair.
And came unsought, ay, as does the snaw.
To part frae thee my heart is wonder sair.
Sometime of me I gart you stand great awe ;
But fortune now has lent me sic ane blaw.
That tbey whilk dread me as the death beforn.
Will mock me now with heathen shame and scorn."
Farther up in the fastnes.ses of the mountains his regretful memories
are of another kind : —
" Now farewell, Rannoch, with thy loch and isle ;
To me thou wast richt trest both even and morn.
POETRY, 1560-1660. 345
The abode of Drummond, perched on its rock of
Hawthornden, looked down on scenes renowned for
their beauty ; yet one will wander until he is tired
through the sonnets, madrigals, and epigrams to
which his muse was chiefly dedicated, without find-
ing any allusion to the glories spread around him
by nature.
The poets of this period were almost as negligent
of the heroic annals of their country as of its natural
beauties. Classical models, ideas, and names had
gained the supremacy, and were to hold a long reign.
The morsels of poetic or imaginative literature that
did most to offer a mirror of the country and the
period were those given to moralising. The vices
that deo-rade and the virtues that adorn are the ob-
jects of prolific literary painting, and they could not
be personified without some touches of actual human
life. How to adorn the life allotted to us, however
humble, with the mellow beauties of a contented
spirit, is the general tenor of this kind of literature ;
and from Seneca downwards it seems to have been a
favourite theme with ambitious and self-seeking men.
Like these. Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling,
the Secretary of State and the projector of the colony
of Nova Scotia, was successful in painting the happi-
ness of a lot he never knew. He speaks in dramatic
Thou wast the place that would me iiocht beguile
When I have been oft at the king's horn."
— Duncan Laideus aliai Makgregouris Testament; Black Book of Tay-
mouth, 149. The author is not kno\vn, but he must have been a cul-
tivated man. Laideus is Latinised from Laudasach, Duncan's hiding
retreat, or some other place associated with his name. For a further
account of the hero and the poem see Innes's Sketches of Early Scotch
History, 355.
346 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
pieces ; but these apparently were not constructed
for the stage, but written to bring out the moralities
in the utterance of the several parts : and there is
a dignity and sweetness in the appreciation and de-
scription of the homely virtues of common life as
they are thus celebrated.'-
There is generally, among a people with a nation-
ality and a history of their own, a literature more
significant in its social relations than the literature of
the library. This, inspired by scholarship, may be
drawn from foreign lands and distant times ; but
the songs and ballads preserved in the traditions of
' The quartets following are a pleasant gloss on the Horatian text of
the " Desiderantem quod satis est," &c. : —
" 0 happy he, who, far from fame, at home
Securely sitting by a quiet fire,
Tliough having little, doth not more desire ;
But first himself, then all things doth o'ercome.
His purchase weighed, or what his parents left,
He squares his charges to his store,
And takes not what he must restore.
Nor eats the spoils that from the poor were reft.
Not proud nor base, he scorning creeping art ;
From jealous thoughts and en\'y free.
No poison fears ia cups of tree,
No treason harbours in so poor a part.
No heavy dream doth vex him when he sleeps ;
A guiltless mind the guardless cottage keeps."
The following is in the spirit of the " Ne sit Ancillse," with an inversion
of the sexes : —
" 0 happy woman ! of true pleasure sure,
who in the country lead'st a guiltless life.
From fortune's reach retired, obscure, secure,
Though not a queen, yet a contented wife.
Thy mate, more dear to thee than is the light.
Though low in state, loves in a high degree.
And, with his presence still to bless thy sight,
Doth scorn great courts while he lives courting thee.
BALLADS AND SONGS, 1560-1660. 347
the people are their own beloved. It was an eminent
and popular Scotsman who first uttered the judgment,
so often repeated, " If a man were permitted to make
all the ballads, he need not care who should make the
laws of a nation." In literature of this kind Scotland
is peculiarly affluent. The ballad-poetry of Scotland
may now be counted a full hundred years old in
printed literature. Allan Eamsay collected a few of
its floating fragments ; but it is in Percy's ' Reliques,'
published in 1766, and more amply in David Herd's
contemporary collection of 'Ancient and Modern
Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, &c.,' that the min-
strelsy of Scottish ballad - poetry took a place in
British literature. The later collections, including
Scott's ' Border Minstrelsy,' and ending with Aytoun's
two volumes, are too numerous to be conveniently
individualised.
From the structure of the versification and languaoje
we may carry the bulk of these popular poems at least
as far back as the seventeenth century. It was then,
at least, that they appear to have been completed, or
brought to the condition in which they stand in the
versions held in highest esteem by those who have
collected and published them. At this stage of
their existence we may say of them that they were a
literature adopted by popular acclamation. No one
was known as the author of any one of them. They
grew and fell into shape as they passed from gener-
ation to generation by tradition. One minstrel or
reciter had to fill up, in his own way, what he had
forgotten ; another gave a touch of improvement, or
what he deemed so, to the work as he got it. If there
were originally verses of execrable doggerel in the
348 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
ballads that have come down to us in all their quaint
sweetness, then the public taste must have chosen the
fair and dropped the foul. A literary structure of
this kind should be a valuable study to those scholars
who attribute a similar method of growth to "the Hom-
eric epics."'- The collector for publication was not pre-
cluded from Avhat, in artist phrase, is called "touching
up " his prizes. Of several versions he had perhaps
not simply to select the best, but he had to adorn it
with stray beauties found among the others. This
rendered manipulation necessary ; and the judicious
alteration of a word here and there, to make better
harmony of the whole, was within the licence of his
craft. ^ There is no doubt that in editing; the ' Min-
^ " The peculiar character and tone of the Iliad and Odyssey, apart
from the question of structure and organism, is specifically the tone
and character which belongs to minstrel poetry, as distinguished from
the productions of poetic art in an age of literary culture. The differ-
ence between minstrel poetry and the poetry of literary art is given
necessarily with the character of the age to which it belongs. The min-
strel sings or recites for the entertainment of a race of simple but stout
and healthy-minded men who know nothing of books ; the literary pioet
writes and publishes for a generation of nice readers, subtle thinkers,
and fastidious critics — a people who can do nothing without printed
paper, and for whose souls books have become almost as essential as
bread is to their bodies. The conditions of growth being so totally
diverse, it cannot be that the flower and the fruit brought to maturity
vmder such different influences should not present a corresponding
diversity." — Blackie's Homer and the Iliad, i. 139.
^ For instance, in the exquisitely mournful "Walj', Waly," —
"Now Arthur Seat shall lie my bed,
The sheets shall ne'er be pressed by me ;
Saint Anton's well sliall be my drink,
Since my true love's forsaken me.
0 winter winds, when will ye blaw,
And shake the dead leaf aff the tree ?
0 gentle death, wlien wilt thou come.
And tak a life that wearies me ? "
BALLADS AND SONGS, 1560-1660. 349
strelsy of the Scottish Border,' Scott did much for
purification and a little in the shape of decoration; and
his was the master's hand that could not fail in giving
the true and perfect touch. A critic of the day
whose first sight of Scottish ballad-lore was in these
attractive volumes prophetically announced that they
contained " the elements of a hundred historical ro-
mances."
The Scottish ballad-minstrelsy, indeed, ranges over
— it is said tliat Allan Ramsay tampered with the last line, wliicli in an
older version is, " For of my life I am weary." But we may thank
" honest Allan " for the improvement ; and we are indebted to Scott for
a slight but effective touch, removing an imperfection in the older read-
ings. No one, however, wiU feel any debt of gratitude to tlie pedant
who seems to have brolien iu on the simple description of the beautiful
boy Gil Morice witli " Minerva's loom" and other polishings : —
" Gil Morice sat in good greenwood,
He whistled and lie sang :
' 0 wliat means a' the folk coming ?
My mother tarries lang ! '
His hair was like the threeds of gold
Drawn from Minerva's loom ;
His lips like roses drajiping dew,
His breath was a' perfume.
His brow was like the raoimtain sna,w
Gilt by the morning beam ;
His cheeks like living roses glow ;
His eyes like azure stream.
The boy was clad in robes 0' green.
Sweet as the infant spring ;
And like the mavis on the bush
He gart the valleys ring.
The baron came to the greenwood
Wi' muckle dule and care ;
And there he first spied Gil Morice
Kaiming his yellow hair.
That sweetly waved around his face —
That face beyond compare.
He sang sae sweet it might dispel
A' rage but fell despair. "
350 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
and engrosses every element of poetry except tlie reli-
gious or devout. That had its own minstrels)^ in the
vocal psalmody of public worship. The great cause
of the Covenant had many heroic acts, but few min-
strels. The only tolerable ballads belonging to it are
"Loudon Hill," celebrating the battle of Drumclog,
and " Bothwell Brig," a ballad of lamentation. Of the
songs attached to popular tunes the cause has but one,
and it is not entirely of a reverend character — it is
" Blue Bonnets over the Border," intended as a song
of triumph on Leslie's march to Newcastle. Otherwise
the minstrelsy is rich in all that picturesquely associ-
ates itself with the shades as well as the lights of the
national life. We have the great crimes, with their
harvest of remorse and retribution. War is there,
with its patriotic devotion, its heroism, and triumphs
on the one side ; its calamities and desolation on the
other. Love, of course, with all its romantic vari-
ations, is abundant. Superstition enters with its
horrors ; but it is also sometimes borne on the wings
o
of an exquisite fancy, yet so wild and wayward that
one cannot see what aesthetic law or theory can jus-
tify it, and yet it pleases.^
In Scotland, and perhaps it is the same all over the
1 Take, in 5'oung Tamlane, the changeling brought up in fairy-land,
who has found an earthly lady-love, and plans, with her aid, an escape
from the enchanted land : —
" Gloomy, gloomy was the night,
And eerie was the way,
As fair Janet in her green mantle
To Miles Cross she did gae."
And that fair Janet was " eerie," or touched with nervous apprehension,
is not wonderful, when we have the rehearsal of the scene in which she
is to take the chief active part : —
BALLADS AND SONGS, 1560-1660. 35 1
world, there is no distinct line between tlie " ballad,"
whicb tells a story, and the song, which expi'esses
abstract sentiment. The same literary history is
common to both. The song, like the ballad, was in
the copyright of the people, who altered it to their
" ' The morn at e'en is Hallowe'en ;
Our fairy court will ride
Througli England and tlirougli Scotland baith,
And through the warld sae wide.
And if that ye wad borrow nie.
At Miles Cross ye maun bide.
And ye maxm gang to the Miles Moss
Bet"\veen twelve hours and one,
Tak haly water in your hand,
And cast a compass roun'.'
' And how shall I hen thee, Tamlane ?
And how shall I thee knaw,
Amang the throng 0' fairy folk.
The like I never saw ?'
' The first court that comes along,
Ye'U let them a' pass by ;
The neist court that comes along,
Salute them reverently.
The third court that comes along
Is clad in robes 0' green.
And it's the head court 0' them a',
And in it rides the queen.
And I upon a milk-white steed,
Wi' a gold star in my cro'vsTi ;
Because I am a christened man
Tliey gave me that renown.
Ye'U seize upon me with a spring.
And to the ground I'll fa',
And then ye'U hear an eldrich cry
That Tamlane is awa'.
They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,
An adder and a snake ;
But hand me fast, let me not pass.
Gin ye wad be my maik.
They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,
An adder and an aske ;
They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,
A bale that burns fast.
They'll shape nie in your arms, Janet,
A dove, but and a swan ;
352 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
mind as it passed on from generation to generation.
Since Allan Ramsay published liis ' Tea-Table Mis-
cellany ' these songs have appeared from time to time
with many variations. It happened in the instance
And last they'll shape me in your anus
A mother-naked man.
Cast your green mantle over me,
And sae shall I be wan.' "
— Aytoun's Ballads, i. 9,
In a story of a different kind, but as waywardly fanciful, the beings
of the aerial world express themselves on the crime of her who in a fit
of jealousy murders her fair-haired sister by drowning her in the mill-
dam of Binnourie. A harper finds the drowned girl, and —
'^ He has ta'en three locks o' her yellow hair,
Binnourie, 0 Binnourie !
And wi' them strung his harp sae rare.
By the honnie mill-dams o' Bimiourie.
He brought the harp to her father's hall,
Binnourie, 0 Binnourie !
And there was the court assembled all.
By the bonnie mill-dams o' Binnourie.
He set the harp upon a stane,
Binnourie, 0 Binnourie !
And it began to play alane.
By the bonnie mill-dams o' Binnourie."
Tlie lengthy character of the ballad-poetry is inimical to the exempli-
fication of its imaginative character in extracts. In comparison with
the epigrammatic and antithetic, which may be exhibited like .separate
gems, it is, like natural scenery, only to be enjoyed in its full expanse
and at leisure. Another, however, tempts to citation by its brevity,
and the touch of bitter pathos in its spirit. It is called " The Twa
Corbies" : —
'' As I was walkin' all alane,
I heard twa corbies making their mane ;
The tane unto the other did say,
' Whare shall we get our denner this day ? '
' Out ower aside yon auld fail dyke
I wote there lies a new-slain knight ;
And naebody kens that he lies there
But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.
His hound is to the hunting gane.
His hawk to bring tlie wildfowl harae,
His lady has ta'en another mate,
Sa we can make our denner sweet.
BALLADS AND SONGS, 1560-1660. 353
of the songs, however, that the genius of Burns broke
into and disturbed this easy traditional process. He
so revolutionised and adorned their old versions that
the songs became his own. The literature of some
of these songs was so stupid or offensive that it might
have died unregretted; but attached to the coarse
clay was, as it were, a soid in the music belonging to
it, and this it was the mission of Burns to ally with
fitting poetry. In some instances the song in its old
shape might have its merits ; but they were not in
harmony with the habits of the age, and made an un-
suitable union. Besides what the taste of the present
day wotdd condemn as absolutely coarse and inde-
corous, there were characteristics which had ceased to
be genial to the lyric muse. The bacchanalian song
still asserts its supremacy, but the feats it records are
all performed by the male sex. In the Scotland of the
seventeenth century, what is so often called the gentle,
and might in later times be called the sober, sex, in-
dulged to some considerable extent in hard drinking,
and its feats were celebrated in genial rhyme.^
0 ye'U sit on liis wliite hause bane,
And I'll pike out his bonny blue een ;
Wi' ae lock 0' his yellow hair
We'll theek our nest when it grows bare.
Mony a ane for him niaks mane,
But nane shall keu whare he lies slane.
O'er his white banes, when they are bare,
The wind shall blaw for ever mair.' "
1 For instance, take the song called " Andrew and his Cutty Gun" : —
" Blithe, blithe, blithe was she.
Blithe was she butt and ben ;
And weel she lo'ed a Hawick gill.
And leugh to see a tappit hen."
The Hawick gill was a measure of liquor peculiar to that district.
The "tappit hen" was a measure of claret certified on the authority
of the author of ' Waverley ' to contain " at least three English quarts."
VOL. VII. Z
3S4 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
Although, among recent adapters of new words to
the old tunes, Burns at least ever improved on what
he found, the lyrical poetrj superseded by his stronger
muse was not always despicable. Though unequal in
the original, and perhaps injured rather than improved
by. tradition, yet it Avas often enlivened with genial
touches of the sentiment more vividly and artistically
expressed by the reconstructor ; and indeed if the
populace had not been educated to the general tone
and sentiment of national song, they would not
The brief air devoted to this Hithe toperess was wanted for a fairer
spirit, and Burns addressed to a reigning beauty of his day the well-
known —
" Blithe, blithe, and merry was she.
Blithe "vvas she butt and ben ;
Blithe by the banks of Earn,
But blither in Glenturrit glen."
The spirit of feminine joviality comes well out in the following : it
was much liked by the late Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, who printed
some copies of it with the music for presentation to his friends : —
" There were four diTinken maidens
Together did convene,
From twelve o'clock in a May morning
Till ten rang out at e'en,
Till ten rang out at e'en,
And then they gied it ower.
And there's four drunken maidens
Doun i' the Nether Bow.
When in came Nelly Paterson,
With her fine satin go\\Ti :
' Come, sit about, ye maidens.
And give to me some room.
Before that we gie't ower. '
And there's four drunken maidens
Doun i' the Nether Bow.
Wlien peacock and pigeon.
And hedgehog and bare.
And all sorts of fine venison,
Was well made ready there.
And set before the maidens
Before they gied it ower.
And there's four drunken maidens
Doun i' the Nether Bow," &c.
BALLADS AND SONGS, 1560-1660. 355
have heartily appreciated as they did its revival in
the eighteenth century.^
In a province where adepts claim supreme rule it
would be presumption in any onlooker to define the
place occupied by the song-music of Scotland, or even
to assert that it has a place at all in music, scienti-
fically speaking. It is among human anomalies that
the divine gift sent to soothe the savage breast has
created the fiercest of exterminating wars in the arena
of controversy, and those claiming absolute supremacy
in the art have been denied the possession of music
altogether when the test of science has been applied.
But we may at least say that the Scottish school has
done the duty of national music in stirring the heart
of the people, and bringing a soothing and elevating
^ The folloTving stanzas, first printed in Watson's Collection in 1711,
and evidently then modernised, will have a familiar tone to many : —
" Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never thought upon ;
The flames of love extinguished,
And freely past and gone ?
Is thy kind heart now grown so cold
In that loving breast of thine,
That thou canst never once reflect
On old long syne ? " &c.
Some critics have the audacity to hold that in one instance, at least —
the restoration of Sir Robert Aytonn's " Inconstancy Reproved " — Burns
did not beautify the ideas of the old song. The first stanza of this
is : —
'^ I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair,
And I might have gone near to love thee.
Had I not found the slightest prayer
That lips could speak had power to move thee ;
But I can let thee now alone,
As worthy to be loved by none."
Burns, varying the measure, begins ; —
'' I do confess thou art so fair
I wad been o'er the lugs In love.
Had I na found the slightest prayer
Tliat lips could speak thy heart could move."
356 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
element into a national character apt to be otherwise
hard and rueaed. The strength of its influence has
been shown among the many wanderers over the
world, who have found in it the most powerful solace
and enjoyment that music can confer in the associa-
tion of the past and present, and the recall of home
memories.^
When the music of the people found its way into
higher social regions at home, whence it spread
abroad, the artists of the legitimate and established
schools complained bitterly of the caprice of fashion
which doomed them to make something endurable
out of the discordant jargon of a rude peasantry.
But the taste has held its own for now nearly a hun-
dred years, and is old enough to merge from a fashion
into a school. Nor was it utterly destitute of older
appreciation in high places. Dryden, when he was
dressing up Chaucer's stories in presentable modern
costume, says that although the voice of their author
is not deemed harmonious to a modern audience,
" they who lived with him and some time after him
thought it musical ; and it continues so even in our
^ The following pleasant little story occurs in that old collection of
qiiestionahle archaeology, Verstegan's 'Restitntion of decayed Intelli-
gence ' : "So fell it out of late years that an English gentleman
travelling hi Palestine, not far from Jerusalem, as lie pursued through
a country town he heard by cliance a woman, sitting at her door
dandling her child, to sing ' Botliwell Bank, thou bloomest fayre.' The
gentleman hereat exceedingly wondered, and forthwith in English
saluted the woman, who joyfully answered him, and said she was right
glad there to see a gentleman of our isle, and told him that she was
a Scottish woman, and came first from Scotland to Venice, and from
Venice to thither, where her fortune was to he the wife of an officer
under the Turk, who being at that instant absent and very soon to
return, entreated the gentleman to stay there until his return ; tlie which
he did."
MUSIC, 1560-1660. 357
judgment, if compared with the numbers of Lidgate
and Gower, his contemporaries. There is the rude
sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural
and pleasing though not perfect." ^
Much conjectural matter has been written about the
origin of Scottish music, discussing among others the
question Avhether it was the creation of one of the
artistic favourites of James III., or was brought
over and naturalised by David Rizzio. That much of
of it is as old, at least, as the sixteenth century, was
proved by a manuscript collection of the tunes them-
selves in a handwriting and notation which brought
them back close to that period. The collection had
the fortune to be edited by a man of scholarly attain-
ments, who had devoted himself to musical science.
His conclusion on their value as preserving the music
of the country in its original purity is : " The favour-
able contrast which many of the Scottish airs therein
contained present to the dull, tiresome, meretricious
productions which from time to time have been palmed
off upon the public under that name, and the vitiated
copies of the same tunes which have been handed
down by tradition alone, are among the most gratify-
ing results of its discovery. We are now no longer
at a loss for a standard by which we can test the
genuineness of our national music, distinguishing the
true from the false, and separate the pure ore from all
admixture of baser metal." ^
' Works, Wharton's edition, iii. 27.
^ Ancient Scottisli Melodies, from a Manuscript of the Reign of King
James the Sixth ; mth an Introductory Inquiry, illustrative of the His-
tory of the Music of Scotland, by WiUiani Dauney, Esq., F.S.A., Scot-
land. ITie original book is called ' The Skene Manuscript;' and on the
question whether it was a favourite possession of that oracle of the law
358 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
Before the period now readied the country had
made some worthy contributions to the graver sciences.
The logarithmic tables of John Napier of Merchiston
may be counted the grandest discovery in the united
sciences of algebra and arithmetic that can be brought
home to any one discoverer. As a machine for over-
coming the difficulty of working with large and com-
plicated numbers, it may vie with the invention of
what we call the Arabic numeration, because we do
not know by whom it was invented, or where or
when, but have reason to suppose that its first use
was in Arabia. Like this numeration, so familiar to
all who have gone through the first steps of education,
the logarithm is in its elementary principle beauti-
fully simple. Take a series of numbers increasing by
arithmetical progression, or with the same distance
between each, as 1, 2, 3, 4, &c., where the distance is
from one unit to another. Connect them with a set
of numbers marching on by mathematical progression
or multiplication. To multiply one of these by the
other, perform the simple task of adding together the
number attached to them in arithmetical progression.
Take the result of the addition to its place in the
arithmetical series — above it stands the product of the
Sir John Skene, the editor says : " Altliough music was an accomplish-
ment infinitely more yommon — among gentlemen at least — than at
present, there is no information on record " " that he was either a
proficient in or a patron of the art of music" (p. 12). In his celebrated
work of reference, ' De Verhorum Signiticatione,' Skene has " Ifenetum,
Leg. Forest, C. 2, ane stockhorn ;'' " cornare menetum, to blaw ane
stockhorn, whilk commonly is made of timmer-wood or tree, with circles
or girds of the same, whilk is yet used in the Highlands and Isles of this
realm ; where I have seen the like in the country of Helvetia, in the
year of God one thousand five hundred sixty- nucht, among the
Switzers." May we infer that the man who jiut matter like this into
a law dictionary must have had a liking for music ?
SCIENCE, 1560-1660. 359
multiplication of the two numbers of the geometrical
series. Through this means, instead of each mathe-
matician, astronomer, or other adept who has to deal
with large numbers, having to make his own calcula-
tions, they can be made beforehand by persons whose
business it is to do so, and can be stored apart for use.
The union of simplicity and power in this invention
was well expressed by the great astronomer Henry
Briggs, who made a pilgrimage to the inventor's
tower and observatory in Edinburgh. He said to
Napier : " Sir, I have undertaken this long journey
purposely to see your person, and to know by what
engine of wit or ingenuity you came first to think of
this most excellent help unto astronomy — viz., the
logarithms ; but, sir, being by you found out, I
wonder why nobody else found it out before, when,
now being known, it appears so easy."^
The trigonometrical discoveries, adapted to the meas-
uring of great distances, and especially to astronomy,
had gone so far as to make the labour of calculation
by the ordinary methods a heavy burthen on further
discovery, and without such a facility it became clear
that the progress of astronomical discovery was so
impeded that its final stoppage might be anticipated.
The vast saving to mental labour effected by this
adjustment, so simple in its principle, may be esti-
mated by a mere glance at any large collection of
logarithmic tables, such as those prepared under the
auspices of the first Napoleon.^
1 Memoirs of Napier of Merchiston by Mark Napier, p. 409.
^ The system was announced by its inventor in 1614 under the title
' Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio ejusque usus, in utraque
Trigonometria ; ut etiam in omni Logistica Mathematica amplissinii,
&c., explicatio.' Printed at Edinburgh by Andrew Hart. The ivory
360 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
A rival both in power and in simplicity to Napier's
invention was that made by James Gregory, forty
years later, in mechanical optics. The magnifying
influence of a convex lens must have its equivalent
on a concave mirror. Thus the difficulty that the
enlargement of the magnifier tended to the obscurity
of the image was conc[uered. The discovery was not
the less a triumph of pure science that there was no
mechanic of the day, either in England or Scotland,
who had skill enough to give effect to it. The philo-
sopher, not the less confident in his knowledge, left
it as a truth in natural philosophy not to be doubted,
and afterwards the reflecting telescope of the astrono-
mers proved the soundness of his reliance. James
Gregory never used or saw a reflecting telescope, yet
that powerful instrument is coupled with his name as
its inventor.
Scotland owned in the seventeenth century another
discoverer still less fortunate — George Dalgarno. Of
one of his achievements another got the use and credit.
A second died along with the memory of its author.
It is admitted that Bishop Wilkins derived from him
the leading idea of his elaborate ' Essay towards a Eeal
Character and a Philosophical Language.' ^ This
belongs to the speculative sciences, where the value of
discoveries may be appreciated by fellow -students,
but cannot be weighed before the world as realities.
tablets called " Napier's bones," or " rods," do not contain logarithmic
tables, but adjustments for facilitating multiplication and division.
' Wilkins published this in 1668. Among the scanty notices of Dalgarno,
it is known that Wilkins was acquainted with him. Dalgarno's book,
jiublished in London in 1661, is called ' Ars Signorum vulgo Character
Universalis et Lingvia Philosophioa. Authore, Geo. Dalgarno. Hoc
SCIENCE, 1560-1660. 361
But Dalgarno's other discovery — the method of
teaching the deaf to read and speak — was eminently
practical.^
It was not until the project had been rediscovered
and put in effective practice that the curious iu obscure
philosophical literature found the buried discovery of
Dalgarno. Its character may be best expressed in the
words of Dugald Stewart: "After having thus paid
the tribute of my sincere respect to the enlightened
and benevolent exertions of a celebrated foreigner
[the Abbe Sicard], I feel myself called on to lay hold
of the only opportunity that may occur to me of
rescuing from oblivion the name of a Scottish Avriter
whose merits have been strangely overlooked both by
his contemporaries and by his successors. The person
I allude to is George Dalgarno, who more than a
hundred years ago was led by his own sagacity to
adopt, a priori, the same general conclusion concern-
ing the education of the dumb, of which the experi-
mental discovery and the happy application have in
our days reflected such merited lustre on the name of
Sicard. "2
1 ' Didascalocoplius ; or, The Deaf-and-Dvimb Man's Tutor ; to which
is added a Discourse of the Nature and Number of Double Consonants
— both which Tracts being the first (for what the author knows) that
have been published upon either of the subjects. Printed at the
Theatre in Oxford anno Dom. 1680.' Both works were edited by the
late Lord Dundrennan for the Maitland Club, with the title, ' The Works
of George Dalgarno of Aberdeen, 1834.'
" Philosophy, cited introduction to Dalgarno, p. vii.
Dalgarno adorns his ideas with some touches of quaint eloquence :
" The soul can exert her powers by the ministry of any of the senses- ;
and therefore when she is deprived of her principal secretaries, the eye
and the ear, then she must be contented with the service of her lackeys
and scullions the other senses, which are no less true and faithful to their
mistress than the eye and the ear, but not so quick for despatch."
"As I think the eye to be as docile as the ear, so neither see I any
362 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
There was too much strife and too little wealth in
the Scotland of early days to let it be a favourable
field for art. Yet the c[uict for some years following
the Union produced one considerable artist — George
Jamesone. He was born in Aberdeen, and there he
settled as a portrait-painter about the year 1620. In
later days the artist in that and other towns of Scot-
land has generally gravitated towards Edinburgh; but,
as we have seen,'_the northern town was of old a sort of
metropolis in itself. There clustered round its cathe-
dral and university a group of scholars, and there
was a wealthy territorial aristocracy around, so that it
was perhaps the most promising spot in Scotland for
the growth of an artist. It is, at all events, fortunate
that in the quiet, before the storm of civil war was to
burst, there was one able to commemorate the features
of so many of those who were to be actors on the
scene.
It has been said and often repeated that Jamesone
studied along with Vandyke under Eubens. But no
authority can be found for this ; and if he had such
opportunities, he brought little with him either from
his master or his fellow-pupil. His pictures are quiet,
with nothing of the stirring life that filled the canvas
under the powerful brush of Rubens. Nor has he
reason but the hand might be made as tractable an organ as the tongue ;
and as soon brought to form, if not fair, at least legible characters, as
the tongue to imitate and echo back articulate sounds."
" The hand is-^at least is capable of being made — a more serviceable
organ of interpretation to the soul than the tongue ; for it has access to
its mistress's soul by the door of three senses, — 1st, of hearing by aulo-
logy ; 2d, of seeing by both species of schematology- — to wit, Typology and
Dactylology ; 3d, of feeling by Haptology, — whereas the tongue can only
enter by the door of one sense, and do its message only by one kind of
interpretation. Glossology." — Works, 131.
ART, 1560-1660. 363
that wonderful gradation of light and shade, of aerial
perspective, which makes the human figure stand forth
so clear from all the rest in Vandyke's portraits.
Jamesone gives his heads light upon a very dark
ground ; but the painting is thin, with few gradations
of shade, and there is little of the artist anywhere
save in the head itself. His principal patron was the
chief of the house of Breadalbane, and hence many
specimens of his work are to be found at Taymouth.
There are several in the two colleges of the Univer-
sity of Aberdeen. Perhaps the best known, because
most readily seen of his works, is the portrait of Sir
Thomas Hope in the Advocates' Library.^ One of
the pleasantest of all his achievements was engraved
by his grandson Alexander, and re-engraved for Dal-
laway's edition of AValpole's ' Anecdotes of Painters.'
It is a family group — the artist himself with his pallet
and brushes, his comely wife with the tartan snood of
the day, and their chubby child. We know that
Jamesone worked in a pavilion or pleasure-house within
a garden, after the Dutch and Flemish fashion, save
that it stood on the brink of a brawling brook instead
of a ditch. When we have the portraits, the muni-
ficent patrons, the artist himself at work in his studio
decorated by his own brush, we have something like
a chapter out of the social history of the Netherlands.
The final touch is given to the little episode of prem-
1 There are two entries in the great lawyer's diary: "20 Julii 1638,
Fryday. This day William Jamesoun, painter (at the ernest desire of
ray son Alexander), was suflferit to draw my pictur. 27 Julii 1638. — Item,
a second draiight by William Jamesom." Hope was extremely miniite,
as some instances have shown us, in his entries in his diary, but he does
not seem to have acquired accuracy about such a trifle as an artist's
name.
364 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
ature civilisation, when we find the poet Arthur John-
ston describing the whole within the terse limits of a
Latin epigram. On the whole, it must be admitted
that the claims to immortality of this one Scottish
painter are founded somewhat on the poverty of neigh-
bours, and that he would not have been so widely
celebrated had it not been that England had no artist
so good until, a little later, Dobson came forth.
The doctrines of the Covenanting party were inim-
ical to the plastic arts, from the belief that they had
been subservient to the breach of the second com-
mandment, and if encouraged might again be so. In
England, even in the small parochial churches, we can
trace with nicety the changing types of ecclesiastical
architecture, from the debasement, as it has been called,
of the classical into the Norman, on through the various
stages, until, by what is called another debasement,
the perpendicular is mixed with classical restorations
in the seventeenth century. But the progress of
ecclesiastical architecture in Scotland stopped in the
year 1560. From that year, in the building of
churches, not only all decoration ceased, but along
with it all beauty and symmetry departed, leaving, in
the places of Christian worship, objects as displeasing
to the eye as buildings could be made. One exception
to this generality is in itself significant. We have
met with the name of Archbishop Spottiswood as a
friend of the innovations of King James in the direc-
tion of Episcopacy. He had it in purpose, as his
biographer says, " the restoring the ancient discipline,
and bringing that Church to some degree of uniformity
with her sister Church of England, which, had we on
both sides been worthy of, might have proved a wall
ART, 1 560-1660. 365
of brass to botli nations." Besides his more con-
spicuous work as an ecclesiastical politician, lie left a
local relic of his zeal in a parish church in Fifeshire,
built, as he thought, after the Gothic models. In the
words of the same author, " he publicly, upon his own
charges, built and adorned the church of Dairsie after
the decent English form, which if the boisterous hand
of a mad Reformation had not disordered, is at this
time one of the beautifulest little pieces of church-
work that is left in that unhappy country." ^ But
what is left of Dairsie church only shows that the hand
of the builder had lost its cunning, and that neither
the prelate nor his biographer had an eye for medi-
eval art. It is a piece of cold mimicry, like the
work of the cabinetmaker rather than of the architect.
The tracery of the windows, for instance, instead of
being the utmost degree of united beauty and strength
to be obtained by laying one stone on another, seems
like openings stamped into a Hat slab of stone. In
this it has too much in common with some of the
efforts towards Gothic at the present day. It is a
mistake to suppose that the art created by centuries of
study and labour can be mimicked offhand. But it
is of far more importance that these efforts, such as
they are, have been made by the representatives in the
present day of those religious communities which
from the Reformation to the existing generation held
in detestation all sesthetic effort in the building of
places of worship.
In baronial architecture and dwelling-houses there
was a great advance between the Reformation and
1 The author's Life, prefixed to ' History of the Church and State of
Scotland.'
366 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
the Restoration. The French style of tall round
towers or turrets with conical tops prevailed. In
some instances the old square tower was surmounted
with turrets and other decorations, and many dwel-
lings were wholly built in the style of Chantilly and
other great French chateaus. Of these there are
fine specimens in Winton, Pinkie, Glammis, Fyvie,
Castle Fraser, Craigievar, and Crathes. Heriot's
Hospital is a curious modification of 'this style. It
was designed by Sir Robert Aytoun the poet, who
evidently appears to have sought to bring the
rambling picturesque character of the French style
into a rigid symmetry, like that which prevails in the
classical styles. It may be noted that the little corner
turrets did not belong to his original plan. In this
the towers were to be carried up into high, abruptly-
shapen pavilion roofs, after the French fashion, as
exemplified in the Tuileries. These petty turrets
depart essentially from the rule that some useful end
should be the object of all building — they are too
small to serve as flanking works, or to be in any way
of service to the main building.-^
Some of these turreted mansions are decorated with
sculpture, chiefly in pargeted ceilings. But there is
nothing national in these works. The medallioned
heads represent, not the worthies of Scotland, but King
' To Sir Robert Aytoun, who was thus an artist as well as a poet,
there is a monument in Westminster ALbey. It is rich in decoration,
and yet in simplicity and beauty it stands in favourable contrast to
many of its neighliours. It is engraved in Smith's ' Oeconographia Scotica.'
We have a little morsel of incidental evidence that his opinions were
not inherited by his descendant the author of the ' Lays of the Cavaliers.'
He was master of an art in high esteem in its day — that of caligraphy,
or decorated penmanship ; and he exercised this art in writing out il-
luminated copies of the Confession of Faith, some of which still exist.
THE TOWNS, I 5 60- 1 660. 367
David, Hector of Troy, Alexander the Great, and
other persons eminent in Scripture or classical litera-
ture. They were probably the work of Italian and
Netherland artists, made for the general market of the
world.
It is evident that the citizen middle class in the
towns rapidly advanced in wealth and comfort after
the union of the crowns. Like the country mansions,
the streets and houses followed Continental examples
rather than English, in the piling of house above house.
There was an obvious reason for this. England was,
during the dynasty of the Tudors, almost the only part
of Europe where towns did not require to be walled. In
Scotland they were liable to attack from the English
on' the one side and from the Highlanders on the
other. But any one alike familiar with the Scots
borough town and the municipalities of France, Ger-
many, and the Low Countries, sees that Scotland was
some two hundred years later in the progress of the
more material part of culture. The town - houses
earlier than the seventeenth century are in Scotland
extremely rare, perhaps even in Edinburgh they do
not amount to half-a-dozen. Thus, although there, and
in Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, and the small towns of
Fifeshire, the old houses are many, their age as a rule
does not go back behind the union of the crowns.
The old Scots town was not so unpleasant a place of
residence, nor so hostile to the laws of health, as it
became when modern buildings enlarged its area. The
old idea was to run up one long street on a ridge of
hill if such ground were available. The street itself
was close and dirty, but each house had its garden
sloping clown towards the open country.
368 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
The following sketch of Aberdeen by a Cavalier
country gentlemen gives an impression not unpleas-
ing : "It is easy to conjecture that the closes, lanes,
and streets have not been at the first building chalked
out or designed by any geometrical rule. The build-
ings of the town are of stone and lime, rigged above,
covered with slates, mostly of three or four storeys
height, some of them higher. The streets are all
neatly paved with flint-stone, or a grey kind of hard
stone not unlike to flint. The dwelling-houses are
cleanly and beautiful and neat both within and with-
out, and the side that looks to the street mostly
adorned with galleries of timber, which they call fore-
stairs. Many houses have their gardens and orchards
adjoining. Every garden has its postern, and these
are planted with all sorts of trees which the climate
will sufl'er to grow ; so that the whole town, to such as
draw near it upon some sides of it, looks as if it stood
in a garden or little wood." ^
Sir William Brereton, a gentleman of Cheshire, might
claim the merit of being the earliest of a prolific race
— the tourists in Scotland. He was among the first
to leave memorials of what he saw there. He visited
Edinburgh, and then rambled westward, in the year
1634. Perhaps his experience of the Scottish capital
may be read with some interest : —
" This Saturday, after dinner, I took a view of the
castle here, which is seated very high and sufiiciently
commanding, and being able to batter the town. This
is also seated upon the top of a most hard rock, and
the passage whereunto was (as they there report) made
through that hard and impregnable rock, which cannot
' (jordon of Rothiemay's description of Aberdeen, 9.
THE TOWNS, 1 560-1660. 369
be touched or hewed ; and it is indeed a stately pas-
sage, wherein was used more industry, pains, art, and
endeavour, than in any place I have found amongst
the Scotts. It is but a very little castle, of no great
receipt, but mighty strength ; it is called Castrum
Puellarum, because the kings of the Picts kept their
virgins therein. Upon the wall of the castle, towards
the top, is this insculpsion, part thereof gilt, — a crown
and sceptre, and dagger placed under it crosswise,
with this superscription : ' Nobis hsec invicta miserunt
106 Proavi.' The same arms and inscription is placed
upon the front of the abbey, which is the king's house.
Out of the court of this high-seated castle, there Avas
one that watched (a soldier in his turn) in a little
wooden house or cabin, which by a whirlwind was
taken and thrown down both together over the castle-
wall and to the bottom of this high and steep rock,
and the man not hurt or bruised, save only his
finger put out of joint. Hence you may take a full
view of the situation of the whole city, which is built
upon a hill nothing oversteep, but sufficiently sloping
and ascending to give a graceful ascent to the great
street, which I do take to be an English mile long,
and is the best paved street with bowther - stones
(which are very great ones) that I have seen. The
channels are very conveniently contrived on both
sides the streets, so as there is none in the middle ;
but it is the broadest, largest, and fairest pavement,
and that entire, to go, ride, or draw upon.
" Here they usually walk in the middle of the street,
which is a fair, spacious, and capacious walk. This
street is the glory and beauty of this city : it is the
broadest street (except in the Low Countries, where
VOL. VII. '2 A
370 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
there is a navio-able channel in middle of the street)
and the longest street I have seen, which begins at
the palace, the gate whereof enters straight into the
suburbs, and is placed at the lower end of the same.
The suburbs make an handsome street ; and indeed
the street, if the houses, which are very high, and
substantially built of stone (some five, some six stories
high), were not lined to the outside and faced with
boards, it were the most stately and graceful street
that ever I saw in my life ; but this face of boards,
which is towards the street, doth much blemish it,
and derogate from glory and beauty ; as also the want
of fair glass windows, whereof few or none are to
be discerned towards the street, which is the more
complete, because it is as straight as may be. This
lining with boards (wherein arc round holes shaped to
the proportion of men's heads), and this encroachment
into the street about two yards, is a mighty disgrace
unto it, for the walls (which were the outside) are
stone ; so, as if this outside facing of boards were
removed, and the houses bu.ilt uniform all of the same
height, it were the most complete street in Christendom.
" This city is placed in a dainty, healthful, pure air,
and doubtless were a most healthful place to live in
were not the inhabitants most sluttish, nasty, and sloth-
ful people. I could never pass through the hall but
I was constrained to hold my nose : their chambers,
vessels, linen, and meat, nothing neat, but very slov-
enly ; only the nobler and better sort of them brave,
well-bred men, and much reformed. This street,
which may indeed deserve to denominate the whole
city, is always full thronged with people, it being the
market-place, and the only j^lace where the gentlemen
THE TOWNS, 1560-1660. 371
and mercliants meet and walk, wherein they may
walk dry under foot, though there hath been abun-
dance of ram. Some few coaches are here to be found
for some of the great lords and ladies and bishops.
" Touching the fashion of the citizens, the women
here Avear and use upon festival days six or seven
several habits and fashions ; some for distinction of
widows, wives, and maids, others apparelled accord-
ing to their own humour and phantasy. JMany wear
(especially of the meaner sort) plaids, which is a gar-
ment of the same woollen stuff whereof saddle-cloths
in England are made, which is cast over their heads,
and covers their faces on both sides, and would reach
almost to the ground, but that they pluck them up
and wear them cast under their arms. Some ancient
women and citizens wear satin straight-bodied gowns,
short little cloaks with great capes, and a broad boun-
grace coming over their brows, and going out with a
corner behind their heads ; and this boun-grace is, as
it were, lined with a white stracht cambric suitable
unto it. Young maids not married all are bareheaded;
some with broad thin shag ruffs, which lie flat to their
shoulders, and others with half bands with wide necks,
either much stiffened or set in wire, which comes only
behind ; and these shag ruffs some are more broad and
thick than others."^
To the sense of the English baronet of that day
there was of course in Scotland much poverty, dirt,
and discomfort. But the people of the Lowlands did
not lie down on a dreary dead level of common wretch-
edness, like the Highlanders and the Irish. There
were brighter varieties here and there, giving the hope
1 Brereton's Travels, KU-IOS.
372 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
of pvugTC'ss. In the small towns on the Ayrshire coast
he finds comfort and pleasantness. Irvine is " daintily
situate, both upon a navigable arm of the sea, and in
a dainty, pleasant, level, champaign country. Excel-
lent good corn there is near unto it, where the ground
is enriched or made fruitful with the seaweed or lime."
" Hence they trade much into Bourdeaux, in France,
and are now furnished with good wine." He goes on
to Ayr, " where is a cleanly neat hostess, victuals
handsomely cooked, and good lodging." " This also
is a dainty, pleasant-seated town; much plain rich
corn-land about it." " Most inhabiting in the town
are merchants trading into and bred in France." On
these relics of the old French league follows a grievance
significant of the period of Brereton's visit : " Inquir-
ing of my hostess touching the minister of the town,
she complained much against him, because he doth
so violently press the ceremonies — especially she in-
stanced in kneeling at the communion ; whereupon,
upon Easter Day last, as soon as he went to the com-
munion-table, the people all left the church and de-
parted, and not one of them stayed — only the pastor
alone."
From these small trading seaports, with their humble
amenities, the traveller passes on to Culzean, the cas-
tellated mansion of the powerful Kennedies, and there
his sketch is somewhat of the Irish type. It is " a
pretty pleasant-seated house or castle, which looks full
upon the main sea. Hereunto we went, and there found
no hall, only a dining-room or hall, a fair room, and
almost as large as the whole pile, but very sluttishly
kept, unswept, dishes, trenchers, and wooden cups
thrown up and down, and the room very nasty and
unsavoury. Here we were not enteitained with a cup
THE TOWNS, 1 560-1660. 373
of bear or ale ; only one of his sons, servants, and
others, took a candle and conducted us to the cave,
where there is either a notable imposture, or most
strange and much-to-be-admired footsteps and im-
pressions which are here to be seen of men, children,
dogs, coneys, and divers other creatures. These here
conceived to be spirits, and if there be no such thing
but an elaborate practice to deceive, they do most
impudently betray the truth ; for one of this
knight's sons and another Galloway gentleman
affirmed unto me that all the footsteps have been put
out and buried in sand overnight, and have been ob-
served to be renewed next morning. This cave hath
many narrow passages and doors, galleries also, and
a closet with many rooms hewed with mighty labour
out of an hard limestone rock." It is generally so
with the remarkable features of scenery visited by
the traveller- — they are surrounded by an atmosphere
of superstition, flavoured to his English mind with
imposture.
Let us next find how our traveller fared in Glasgow,
a place of mark even at that early period : —
" About one hour we came to the city of Glasgoaw,
which is thirty-six miles from Edenburgh, eighteen
from Failkirke. This is an archbishop's seat, an
ancient university, one only college consisting of
about one hundred and twenty students, wherein are
four schools, one principal, four regents. There are
about six or seven thousand communicants, and about
twenty thousand persons in the town, which is famous
for the church, which is fairest and stateliest in Scot-
land, for the toUboothe and bridge.
" This church I viewed this day, and found it a
brave and ancient piece. It was said, in this church
374 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
this day, tliat there was a contribution throughout
Europe (even Eome itself contributed) towards the
building hereof. There is a great partition or wall
'twixt the body of the church and the chancel. There
is no use of the body of the church, only divine service
and sermon is used and performed in the quire or
chancel, which is built and framed churchwise ; and
under this quire there is also another church, which
carries the same proportion under this, wherein also
there is two sermons every Lord's Day. Three places
or rooms one above another, round and uniformed, like
unto chapter - houses, which are complete buildings
and rooms.
" The toleboothe, which is placed in the middle of
the town, and near unto the cross and market-place, is a
very fair and high-built house, from the top Avhereof,
being leaded, you may take a full view and prospect
of the whole city. In one of these rooms or chambers
sits the council of this cit}' ; in other of the rooms or
chambers j^reparation is made for the lords of the
council to meet in — these stately rooms. Herein is a
closet lined Avith iron — walls, top, bottom, floor, and
door iron — wherein are kept the evidences and records
of the city : this made to prevent the danger of fire.
This tolebooth said to be the fairest in this kingdom.
The revenues belonging to this city are about £1000
per annum. This town is built : two streets, which
are built like a cross, in the middle of both which the
cross is placed, which looks four ways into four streets,
though indeed they be but two straight streets — the
one reaching from the church to the bridge, a mile
long; the other, which crosseth that, is much shorter."^
1 Brereton's Travels, 114, 115.
THE TOWNS, 1560-1660. 375
Here the Englishman came across a feature social
and political, familiar enough to him in England, but
soon to become alien to Scotland. He went to the
archiepiscopal palace, " and going into the hall, which
is a poor and mean place, the archbishop's daughter,
an handsome and well-bred proper gentlewoman, en-
tertained me with much civil respect, and would not
suffer me to depart until I had drunk Scotch ale,
which was the best I had tasted in Scotland."^
A few years afterwards, and during the Protectorate,
Glasgow received a visit from another Englishman,
named Richard Frank. He wrote a book of consid-
erable bulk, already referred to, called ' Northern Me-
moirs, calculated for the Meridian of Scotland.' He
followed a hyperbolical style just coming into fashion,
and manages, with a vast abundance of words, to say
wonderfully little. The serious business of life to him
was fly-fishing, and experienced anglers have said that
his book proves him to have been a highly-accom-
plished adept in this art. He proceeds " to discourse
this eminent Glasgow, which is a city girded about with
a strong stone wall, within whose flourishing arms the
industrious inhabitant cultivates art to the utmost": —
" Here it is you may observe good, large, fair streets,
modelled, as it were, into a spacious quadrant, in the
centre whereof their market-place is fixed ; near unto
which stands a stately tolbooth, a very sumptuous,
regulated, uniform fabric, large and lofty, most indus-
triously and artificially carved from the very founda-
tion to the superstructure, to the great admiration of
strano-ers and travellers. But this state-house or tol-
booth is their western prodigy, infinitely excelling the
^ Brcreton's Travels, 117.
n6 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
model and usual built of town-halls, and is without
exception the paragon of beauty in the west."
After much digression he returns " to consider the
merchants and traders in this eminent Glasgow, whose
storehouses and warehouses are stuffed with merchan-
dise, as their shops swell big with foreign commodi-
ties and returns from France and other remote parts."
He finds that " they generally exceed in good French
wines, as they naturally superabound with flesh and
fowl." Before he departs he pays Glasgow the highest
compliment at his disposal : " What to say of this
eminent Glasgow I know not, except to fancy a smell
of my native country. The very prospect of this
flourishing city reminds me of the beautiful fabrics
and the florid fields of England." And again : " The
linen, I also observed, was very neatly lapped uj), and,
to their praise be it spoken, was lavender-proof;
besides, the people were decently dressed, and such an
exact decorum in every society represents it to my
apprehension an emblem of England, though in some
measure under a deeper die." ^
The moi'ality of a country is no doubt the most
essential chapter in its social history; but it is perhaps
better to leave it to come forth in the narrative of
events, than to offer a summary of its condition. There
are many barriers in the way of such an attempt. In
the quarrels of the age all moral conditions were exag-
gerated. The opposite sides not only maligned each
other, but sometimes maligned themselves. With the
Cavalier party there was the spirit put by Scott into
the mouth of the tipsy butler, who explained that a
Cavalier serving-man must drink and swear according
' Northern Memoirs, 104-107.
MORALS, 1560-1660. m
to his degree, lest he be mistaken for a Puritanical
Roundhead. In some instances, too, where the Cove-
nanting party in the Church have summed up the sins
of the land as a testimony to their own inefficiency in
restraining them, there is a tendency to aggravate
their enormity; and this tendency is flavoured by a
propensity to seek for parallels in the denunciations
of the prophets of old, who had often to address
themselves to such brutalised conditions as we cannot
suppose to have existed in any part of Britain.
In the manifesto of 1651, published at greater length
in 1653, called 'The Causes of the Lord's Wrath
against Scotland, manifested in His sad late Dispensa-
tions,' one might expect some account of the current
matters of the day; but it is little to the purpose to
find, along with texts hinting at worse evils, such
standard pulpit denunciations as the " Woe to them
that rise up early in the morning to drink strong drink ! "
&c. ; or, " There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which
bought fish and all manner of ware, which they sold to
the children of Judah and Jerusalem on the Sabbath."
In the golden age of the Melville supremacy we
have found the ecclesiastical authorities issuing their
stringent instructions to their executive to enforce
the rule of righteousness, immediately accompanied
by accusations tending, if not intended, to prove the
futility of their corrective organisation. When they
recovered their powers with the Covenant, the old
eff'orts, and bewailings of their insufficiency, were re-
peated in the old form, as if it Avere a precedent for a
ceremonial routine.^
^ The Synod of Fife, for instance, in the year 1650, established a
powerful social police lender a rule " that every parish be divided into
378 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
If we are to take the intellectual triumphs of a
people — their accomplishments in literature, science,
and art — as marking the highest deyelopment of their
social existence, we come at the other end to the super-
stitious that degrade and enslave the intellect. They
are together the light and the shade, the day and the
night, of the intellectual circle. The prevalent super-
stitions of Scotland had a growth assimilated to the
character of the country, as a land rugged and barren,
swept by stormy winds, penetrated by long, \\'ild
stretches of sea - lochs, and cut by rapid torrents.
Among a people trained in such physical conditions the
pallid spectre of the J^nglish churchyard was of little
account as an object of fireside terror, nor were the
household imps familiar in old English village life of
much moment. In place of these, Ffam stalked with his
torn-up tree over the ridge of the misty mountain ; he
was the optical delusion produced by magnified reflec-
tion on the mist, and was of kin to the renowned spec-
tre of the Broken. There was the kelpie who strangled
the traveller in the stream, or swelled it into a flood
to sweep him clown to destruction ; and in many
several quarters, and eacli elder Ids own quarter, over which he is to
have special inspection, and that every elder visit his quarter once every
month at least." They ai-e to " take notice of all disorderly walkers,
especially neglecters of God's worship in their families, swearers,
haunters of ale-houses, especially at unseasonable hours, and long sitters
there and drinkers of healths, and that they delate these to the session."
Soon afterwards the}- enacted a day of humiliation for the sins
of the land. Among these they specify "the great and general con-
tempt of the grace of the Gospel, the conversation of many of the pro-
fessors being not as becometh the Gospel; " and "the many abominable
sins, as contempt and mocking of piety, gross uncleanness, intemperance,
breach of Sabbatli, swearing, injustice, murmuring against God abound-
ing while we are under the Lord's afflicting hand." — Selections from the
Minutes of the Synod of Fife, 168-175.
SUPERSTITIONS, 1560-1660. 379
other shapes the casualties fatal to life in a country
lull of dangers were connected with supernatural
agencies as cause and effect. The picturesque pro-
p)hetic superstition of the " second sight " was the
exclusive possession of natives of the farthest High-
lands, who had a world of supernatural beings and
agencies peculiar to themselves. But there was one
superstition overshadowing all others in the extent of
its horrible influence, as spreading suspicion and ter-
ror through the community, and driving it to acts
of ferocity and cruelty. As the pursuit of the Witch
rapidly increased in frequency over Europe after the
Reformation, the ingenious theory has been suggested,
that a certain amount of superstition is an intellectual
necessary of life to mankind according to their condi-
tion in culture, and if it is not supplied to them they
will take it. Hence, not having it in the decorous
and pompous ceremonials in which it was administered
to them by the Church of Rome, they took it as supplied
by their own degraded and unguided fancies. But
another explanation of this superstition suggests itself
Through much investigation into certain phenomena,
a laborious classification of the results, and a deduction
of general laws from that classification, a sort of
science had been found for the operations of witchcraft.
The Church took the command of this as a portion
of philosophical knowledge especially its own. The
collection of treatises known to erratic readers as
the 'Malleus Maleficarum,' or Hammer of Witches,
received the sanction of the Church, and became the
standard of doctrine to which all who discoursed on
the important science of witchcraft appealed. Great
students, admitted also to be great teachers, pre-eminent
38o SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
among whom was tlie illustrious Delrio, discoursed on
the doctrines of this science as adepts now discourse
on astronomy and geology. The whole affair is a
humiliating instance of what human science may
become, but it is of interest here from the following
considerations : —
The facts brought forth in a great body of trials for
witchcraft in Scotland supply apt illustrations of the
doctrines of the authorities on witchcraft — illustrations
just as apt as the clinical student finds in the wards of
a hospital to the doctrines laid down in the leading
practical authorities of the day. We have the negotia-
tions and treaties with the Evil One, ending in the
transference of the claim on salvation for certain gifts
at his disposal. There are the great Sabbaths or
assemlDlies for his worship immortalised in the Wal-
purgis night. The loathsome doctrine of the incubus
and succuba is exemplified with horrible minuteness.
Some phenomena coming down to the scientific
authorities from the Greek and Latin classics are
repeated with equal fidelity, as the metamorphosis
from human creature to beast, the two animals chiefly
resorted to by the restless being the cat and the
wolf. Another feature of classic descent is the
vicarious torture or slaughter by symbolical infliction
on a waxen image. The necromantic use of the
remains of the dead is a doctrine of the sages amply
exemplified in Scottish practice, and so are the aerial
journeys of the servants of Satan to attend the great
gatherings ordered by their master in distant regions.
Even the minor agencies — through toads, snakes, and
other creatures odious or venomous — are according to
precedent. The shapes, too, in which the victims are
SUPERSTITIONS, 1560-1660. 381
afflicted through these agencies, conform to the estab-
lished doctrine of the authorities.
In its own day the coincidence was natural and
satisfactory, as a fitting together of fact and doctrine.
In the present day it leaves room for none but a very
horrible conclusion, too well supported by the facts.
Towards those who came under the suspicion of dia-
bolical dealing there was no pity left in the human
heart. True, the doctrine that suspicion was not
proof existed nominally for this as for other accusa-
tions, but nominally only. Where the suspicion
alighted it carried belief with it, so as to render this
chapter in the history of human wrongs perhaps the
very darkest and saddest of them all. It followed
from all this, that tortm'e was applied in inexhaustible
abundance to the accused. It was applied in the
presence of sages learned in the doctrines of witch-
craft. They knew, indeed, the things that ought to
be confessed, just as the expert physician knows the
symptoms that his patient ought to describe to him.
So under the infliction of torture the wretches ad-
mitted whatever was charged against them, and their
wonderful confessions were duly recorded.
In Scotland the approved doctrines of witchcraft
had the sanction of the highest authority. King
James himself was one of the sages of the science, as
the author of the ' Dsemonologie ' in three books. He
had wonderful practical experience, too, to guide him.
There was a strong muster of the Satanic world to
interrupt his return home from Scandinavia with his
bride, and the interest and value of the phenomenon
was increased by a co-operative body of witches on
the Scandinavian side, the two affording a crucial ex-
382 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
periment on the laws of dcmonology. The forms of
witclicraft doA'i 'loped in Scotland had the grand
picturesqueness which recommended them to the pm-
poses of (Shakespeare ; and of all the supernatural
escapades admitted by them in their confessions, none
are more richly endowed with the grotesque, the
fanciful, and the horrible, than those which were
confessed in the presence of King James himself, as
appertaining to designs entertained and attempted by
the powers of daxkness against his own sacred person.^
With these, his own peculiar people, the prince of
darkness was at home. They had proffered their
services and become the covenanted slaves of his will.
' For special information on the phenomena of witchcraft in Soot-
lanrl, the inquirer may be referred to Chambers's ' Dduiustic Annals
of Scotland,' Pitcairn's ' Ci'iminal Trials,' Sir John Dalzell's 'Darker
Superstitions of Scotland,' Kirkpatrick Sharpe's introduction to
' Law's Memorials,' the Miscellany of the Spalding Club, and a
' Diurnal of Occurrcnts in Scotland,' in the Miscellany of the Spottis-
wood Society.
The tenacity of a belief in witchcraft among educated people in Scot-
land is signally exemplitied in the methodical ti-eatnient of the crime
and its symptoms in a law-book of the dryest professional character
— 'The Institutes of the Law of Scotland,' publisheil in 1730, "by
William Forbes, advocate, professor of law in the University of Glasgow " :
" Witchcraft is that black art whereby strange and wonderful things
are wrought Ijy a power derived from the devil" (p. 32). He excuses
himself for declining to follow the example of the English commentators,
who touch the matter as if it was an obsolete belief : " Nothing seems
plainer to me than that there may be and have been witches, and that
perhaps such are now actually existing ; wdiich I intend, God willing,
to clear in a larger work concerning the criminal law " (p. 371). When
the penal laws against witchcraft were repealed in 1736, the religious
community, professing to be the rejire.sentative of the Church in the days
of its purity under the Melvilles, lifted a vehement testimony against
the repeal as " contrary to the express law of God ; for which a holy
God may be provoked in a way of righteous judgment to leave those
who are already ensnared to be haidened more and more, and to per-
mit Satan to tempt and seduce others to the .same wicked and dangerous
SUPERSTITIONS, 1560-1660. 383
But liis power over these once established in firm be-
lief, there was a tendency to extend it, as an easy and
rational solution of moral difficulties. It was thus
followed into remons where its action was more subtle
and treacherous. It could establish itself within the
moral nature of those who had not offered themselves
as victims — who were seeking another master — who
had even found him and entered the circle of the elect
people of God. Here, looking at the phenomenon from
without, there might be seen established within the new
Church, what was virtually equivalent to one of the
scandals of the old, a licence to sin admitted by man
in favour of his neighbour. Demoniacal possession
served amply the purpose of indulgence. Without
comparing with each other the merits of the two
Churches, we have the fact that in both there were
people endowed with a small morsel of religion and a
large share of wickedness, who desired to make such
religion as they could command minister to their vices.
In this way absolute demoniacal possession was a
plenary indulgence obtained without payment of a
price. This is one of the moral phenomena calcu-
lated to teach us how in all feuds, civil and religious,
however far the men of the two factions draw oif
from each other, they are still the men of the period,
subject to the like passions and affections ; and it has
been an evil thing for truth that the writers about
such periods should think it their duty to paint the
one side as angelic and the other as diabolical.
It was perhaps from this sense of enslavement to
the power of evil, that men who had trodden in a
peculiarly strict path of life, when they lapsed into
Avickedness, not only confessed their crimes with
384 SOCIAL PROGRESS SINCE THE REFORMATION.
broad distinctness, but drew tliem in their darkest
colours, sometimes even in the spirit of exaggeration,
as if the deeper the atrocity of the crime the clearer
was it that the responsibility was removed from the
perpetrator to the Power of evil. Thus John Kello,
a minister of the most rigid class, murdered his Avife
and made full confession of his crime. He had no
motive for his crime, he said, "but the continual sug-
gestions of the wicked spirit to advance myself further
and further in the world." " These were the glistering
promises wherewith Satan, after his accustomed manner,
clouded my senses, and prevailed so in my corrupted
mind that the space of forty days together I did await
only upon the opportunity of time to put my Avicked
desire in execution." As if to exaggerate his crime,
he said he loved his victim tenderly ; and she was
eminently worthy of all love — so devoted to him,
that Avhen, " pressed forAvard by the temptation of
the enemy," he was doing the deed, she " in the very
death could not believe I bore her any evil-will, but
Avas glad, as she then said, to depart, if her death could
do me either vantage or pleasure."-^
This articulate individualising of the poAvers of
good and evil, and the severing of the two into op-
posite armies set in material hostility Avith each other,
had a terrible and brutalising influence on the polem-
ical and superstitious passions. The tendencies that
soften their hard logic — charity, sympathy, compassion
— were all excluded. There could be none of these for
the great enemy. Admit that Satan himself was the
being to be fought with or punished, there could be no
quarter. Any suggestion of compromise, any admis-
^ Bannatyne's Memorials, 53 et scq.
SUPERSTITIONS, 1560-1660. 385
sion that he might be spared or pitied, was arrant
lilasphemy. Hence the relentless cruelties inflicted by
a people not cruel by nature upon those who fell
under the blight of witchcraft. And something of the
same feeling crept into religious controversy, and gave
it the tone of intolerance that so ill becomes those
who are counted among the champions of free thought
in Scotland. If the inspiration of the Sectaries and
the Malignants were but the manifestation of the
power of evil — and there was ever a suspicion that it
Avas — then, indeed, the toleration of it was a crime of
the darkest hue. We may perhaps have opportunity
of seeing the influence of this spirit on the history of
the dismal period now approaching.
VOL. VII. - B
CHAPTER LXXVII.
Restoration .Scttlftnent.
ARRIVAL OF THE KING IN LONDON — THE REJOICINGS IN SCnT-
LAND — RESUMPTION OF COMMITTEE OF ESTATES — THE ENGLISH
NAVIGATION ACT, AND END OF FRKE-'IRADE — THE TESTIMONY
OF THE REMONSTRANT PARTY THEIR CONDITION AND IN-
FLUENCE— PROSPECTS OF RELIGION — AMBASSADORS AT COURT
FOR THE MODERATE PARTY OF THE CHURCH HISTORY OF THE
NEGOTIATIONS OF JAMES SHARP SENT TO PLEAD FOR THE
PRESBYTERIAN CAUSE, AND RETURNS AS ARCHBISHOP OF ST
ANDREWS — THE REGALIA PRESERVED LOSS OF RECORDS — THE
FORTRESSES MEETING OF ESTATES MIDDLETON AS COMMIS-
SIONER— THE EQUIVOCAL PROMISES ABOUT THE CHURCH — THE
ACT RESCISSORY ESTABLISHMENT OF EPISCOPAL HIERARCHY
VICTIMS — ARGYLE — GUTHRIE — WARRISTON.
As soon as the news of the 29th of May IGGO could
reach Scotland, it became known that Cliarh's II. Lad
arrived in England, and was there received with a
sort of delirious joy.^ The active part of " the
' Perhaps the Bpirit of the time is sufficiently expTcsKcd in a con-
temporary account of the rejoicings in Eilinliurgh on the coronation-day —
a scene much in contrast with anything that had been known in Scotland
for a generation: " Sermon (tnded, the Lord Oomruissioner returned to
the royal palace attended by great numbers of nobility, knights, and
gentry ; and all feasted at one time, and at several tables, in a most
splendid and magnificent manner. And that nothing miglit be wanting
to complete the solemnity, the Lord Commissioner's lady, with her
daughters, at the same tinje, in another room, entertained many ladies of
quality witli all the rarities and didicacies iojaginable, and with such
admirable concerts of music as liardly could been exjjccti^d from u nation
RESTORATION, 1660. 387
Restoration belongs to the history of England, or of
Britain generally ; it is only in its consequences that
there arise facts sufficient in their distinct importance
to keep up the thread of separate national history in
so depressed. Towards the middle of dinner liis majesty's health begun
liy the Lord Commissioner, a sign given from the terrace, the cannons
of the castle began to thunder, which was answered from the citadel at
Leith with the like roaring ; and the great pyramid of coals and tar-
barrels which was in the out-court of the palace was like^\^.se given fire
to, which for its greatness was extraordinary ; and if it had been on the
top of a hill in the night-time, for two miles about it would have shown
light to have sung Te Beums in the smallest print, and put into a sweat
any that had been frozen with the greatest fit of a cold, and at the same
distance too. After dinner the young lords and ladies came out and
danced all sorts of country dances and reels ; and none busyer than
the young Lord Clermont, son of the Lord Commissioner, who was so
ra\'ished with joj' that if he had not been restrained he had thro'mi rings,
chains, jewels, and all that was precious about him, into the fire.
" Now let us take a little notice of the great signs of joy manifested
by our ancient and good to-n-n of Edinburg. After the Lord Provost,
Sir Robert Murray, with the bailies, common councU, and other magis-
trates, had turned up their spiritual thanks to heaven for so blessed an
occasion, then they went altogether to a place appointed for the purpose,
and in a most magnificent manner regaled themselves with those human
lawful refreshment which is allowable for the grandeur of so eminent a
blessing. By that time their feast was finished, the bonfire bells alarmed
them to mind the carrying on of the work of the night. The Lord
provost, with the magistrates — each of them with a white baton in their
handstand the rest of the council, appeared at the cross, which was dis-
posed in a most hospitable piece of pageant — viz., a splendid representa-
tion of a vineyard with all the cognisances of Bachus, and under a large
wine-tree of swelling and bushy clusters did that same god of frolics
bestride a hogshead of the most gracious claret. He was accompanied
with his uncle Silenus and some half-a-score of most lovely and wanton
Bachides ; this same grave and spungy moderator by proclamation gave
most ample permission to all mankind, for the space of twelve hours by
the clock, to be as mad with mirth as their imaginations could fancy.
The indulgence was no sooner pronounced but streams of claret gushed
from the conduits ; trumpets, flutes, and all sorts of carousing instrument
which might screw up the passions, did forthwith sound a charge ; the
breaking of glasses and tumbling of conduits among the commonalty
made a greater noise than the clashing of Xerxes' armies' armoiir did at
a narrow pass when they were upon a rout." — Edinburgh's Joy for his
Majesty's Coronation in England.
388 CHARLES II.
Scotland. It was again religion and the Church that
was to stir into activity the materials of history. But
on this occasion the power roused by religious fervour
in Scotland did not, as in the days of the Covenant,
shake England also. The events, too, were not to
open to the zealous a brilliant and triumphant career.
The predominant features in the new epoch were to
)je defeats and sufferings, and they were to be borne
by Scotland alone, with no aid and scant sympathy
from without.
A convenient arrangement had been bequeathed
from the days before the Commonwealth for the
immediate administration of business. It was put
into the hands of the Committee of Estates, as it was
constituted at the time when Charles II. was crowned
at Scone. It was a body that had been originally
created in defiance of and to thwart the Crown, but
in the present juncture of loyalty it could be trusted
until the king sent a commissioner to preside over a
meeting of the Estates.
The convention Parliament of England had been
assembled, and was sitting for the transaction of busi-
ness when the king arrived. One of the earliest Acts
of this Parliament affected Scotland, and it therefore
happens that the civil history of Scotland at the junc-
ture of the Restoration begins in Westminster. The
" Act for the encouraging and increasing of shipping
and navigation," commonly called " the Navigation
Act," has just as much direct reference to Russia as
it has to Scotland, and yet it was to the Scottish peo-
ple a sudden calamity followed by a long train of
disastrous consequences. The leading rule of that
Act — a rule long held in reverence as the legislative
NAVIGATION ACT, 1660. 389
guardian of English trade — is in these words : " No
goods or commodities whatsoever shall be imported
into or exported out of any lands, islands, plantations,
or territories to his majesty belonging, &c., in Asia,
Africa, or America, in any other ship or ships, vessel
or vessels, whatsoever, but in such ships or vessels as
do truly and without fraud belong only to the people
of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales, or town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed," or of some English settlement.
Further, there was provision that merchandise should
not be imported from abroad into England except in
English vessels, or the vessels of the place where the
goods were produced. In brief, there could be no
trade with the English colonies but in English vessels,
and no goods could be imported into England from
any place abroad by ships that did not belong either
to England or the place whence the goods were
brought. Thus no vessel belonging to Scotland,
HoUand, or France, could trade in the produce of
the English colonies, or between Spain or any other
country and England. To such goods as came
through the narrowed channel of trade from foreign
countries, alien duties were attached for the encourage-
ment of English trade. That the bearing of this Act
on Scotland was kept in full view when it was pre-
pared, is shown by a curious clause of exemption, by
which alien duties are not to apply to " any corn of
the growth of Scotland, or to any salt made in Scot-
land, nor to any fish caught, saved, and cured by the
people of Scotland, and imported directly from Scot-
land in Scotch-built ships, and whereof the master and
three-fourths of the mariners are of his majesty's sub-
jects; nor to any seal-oil of Eussia imported from
390 CHARLES II.
thence into England, Ireland, Wales, or town of Ber-
wick-upon-Tweed, in shipping bo7ia fide to any of the
said places belonging, and whereof the master and
three-fourths of the mariners at least are English." ^
By this Act the free commerce between Scotland
and England, which had lasted for six years, was at
once suppressed, and the infant progress of Scotland
in wealth and enterprise was blighted. The Naviga-
tion Act was the foundation of that great, complicated,
and laborious system of restrictive and prohibitory
commercial legislation which has now been swept
from the statute-book. The navigation laws were an
invention of the Eepublic for the purpose of ruining
the Dutch, who threatened to engross the shipping
and commerce of the whole world. The Restoration
Government saw that it was good, and immediately
preserved it in a legitimate Act of Parliament. Those
statesmen of times not long past who had least sym-
j)athy with the Commonwealth, admitted that its states-
men did one wise thing when they laid the foundation
of the restrictive and prohibitory commercial system.
The economic policy of the present age utterly con-
demns the system ; but that condemnation does not
reverse the view, that as part of a system in which the
island of Britain was one country, it was eminently
advantageous to the Scots. To them the trade of
England was worth the trade of the rest of the world
many times over. This just rendered it all the more
necessary that they should no longer retain it. The
navigation laws were one of those great acts of
homage to the trade jealousy which was growing
in strength and casting its unamiable shadow over
1 Act 12, ch. ii. ch. 18.
NAVIGATION ACT, l66o. 391
England. The Scots, like the English an energetic,
industrious, commercial nation, were more dangerous
than the French or the Spanish, because they were
close at hand. When the Scots afterwards attempted
to rival the English monopoly, and to trade and colonise
on their own account, the English merchants pursued
and ruined them. The efforts of Scotland and the
jealousy of England both culminated in the renowned
Darien expedition. The result of that was, that either
there must be toleration and interchange of trading
privileges, or Scotland would have a separate sover-
eignty for itself, and fight, as of old, its own cause ;
and the consequence of this emergency was the Union
of 1707. Such was the legacy of events left by a
piece of statesmanship belonging to that useful but
uneventful class which history shuns. It is not
wonderful, indeed, that in the many incidents,
tragic or otherwise, of the period, such a matter as the
Navigation Act should be passed by. It is necessary
that we now turn to the scene of these events so
diff'erent in character, and they again drive us into
the thick of ecclesiastical squabbles.
A small body of clergymen and elders desired
their brethren of the Church to unite with them in a
dutiful address or " supplication" to his majesty. The
clergy at large, not liking the names of those who so
appealed to them, held aloof ; and the promoters met
to prepare their appeal in the house of Eobert Simp-
son, a citizen of Edinburgh, on the 23d of August
1660. The supplication resolved itself into some-
thing more like a demand than those of twenty years
earlier. They addressed the king as one of themselves
— a Covenanted monarch. They reminded him of the
392 CHARLES II.
fact thus : " We hope that your majesty will uot take
oiience if we be the Lord's remembrancers to you that
you were pleased, a little before your coming into this
kingdom, and afterwards at the time of your corona-
tion, to assure and declare by your solemn oath under
your hand and seal in the presence of Almighty God,
the searcher of hearts, your allowance and ajjproba-
tion of the National Covenant, and of the Solemn
League and Covenant, faithfully obliging yourself to
prosecute the ends thereof in your station and call-
ing."
That he may be fully informed as to the nature of
the obligations so undertaken, they utter their expec-
tations thus : " That you would employ your royal
power unto the preservation of the Eeformed religion
in the Church of Scotland in doctrine, worship, dis-
cipline, and government; and in the reformation of
religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland in
doctrine, worship, discipline, and government ; and in
the carrying on the work of uniformity in religion in
the Churches of God in the three kingdoms, in one
confession of faith, form of Church government, direc-
tory for worship, and catechising ; and to the extirpa-
tion of Popery, Prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism,
profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found contrary
to sound doctrine and the power of godliness ; and
that all places of power and trust under your majesty
may be filled with such as have taken the Covenant,
and are of approven integrity and known affection in
the cause of God."
They know that there are designs to overthrow the
" blessed work," and "to reintroduce Prelacy and the
ceremonies and the Service-book, and all those cor-
REMONSTRANT TESTIMONY. 393
ruptious which Avere formerly cast out." But should
these projects be successful, they " cannot, without
horror of heart and astonishment of spirit, think of
what dreadful guiltiness kings, princes, ministers, and
people shall be involved into, and what fearful wrath
shall attend them from the face of an angry and
jealous God."
They admit that they would be no less apprehen-
sive were there a chance of the restoration " of the
spirit of eiTor that possesseth sectaries in these na-
tions, which as it did at first j)romote the practice of
a vast toleration in things religious, and afterwards
proceeded to the framing of the mischief thereof into
a law ; " and they know that there are some who are
prepared to renew this licence "under the specious
pretence of liberty for tender consciences." They
conclude their supplication, of which these extracts
are but a small part, with something like an invoca-
tion : " It is the desire of our souls that your majesty
may be like unto David, according to God's own
heart ; like unto Solomon, of an understanding heart
to judge the Lord's people, and to discern betwixt
good and bad ; like unto Jehoshaphat, whose heart
was lifted up in the ways of the Lord ; like unto
Hezekiah, eminent for goodness and integrity; like
unto Josias, who was of a tender heart, and did hum-
ble himself before God," &c.^ If these parallels ever
found their way into the ante-chambers at Whitehall,
it is easy to imagine them creating much merriment.
This supplication was never presented. The Com-
mittee of Estates, calling the meeting " a conventicle
' " The Ministers' [designed] Supplication " will be found in full in
Wodrow, i. 68 ei seq.
394 CHARLES II.
and private meeting of some remonstrating and pro-
testing ministei's," sent a warrant committing them
to the Castle of Edinburgh.
As it is proper to keep in view the peculiar tenor
of this document, it is also proper to note who its
adherents were. They were the remnant of the Re-
monstrants of the west. The past ten years had
been unpropitious to their growth in numbers and
strength. The Protectorate kept their enemies from
persecuting them, and in some measure favoured them
for the one virtue of their disliking the house of
Stewart. Their sole grievance was, that they were
not permitted to assail the large portion of the
human race who were heretics from their own centre
of truth. If their existence mio;ht be likened to
physical or mental disturbance in the body politic of
Scotland, the effect of the political treatment admin-
istered by the Protectorate might be likened to that
of soporifics and rest on the excited patient. The
more they raved, indeed, the less sympathy did the
great bulk of the community give them ; and there
can be no greater mistake than to suppose, as some
people have from what afterwards befell, that these
men represented the prevailing feeling of the Scots at
the juncture of the Eestoration. Whatever remnant
of the old frenzy remained with these zealots of the
west, the country at large, Presbyterian and Episco-
palian, had little sympathy in it. The country was
never in a more tolerant or moderate temper. Of
those who, like Baillie, were not Remonstrants, yet
had seen the Covenant work its way over the land as
if led by the finger of God, and who expected to see
the restoration of Zion, the number was small, and they
REMONSTRANT TESTIMONY. 395
were old, with little practical influence. Their doctrine,
that all the three kingdoms must become Covenanted,
would have been dealt with as a mere obsolete form of
speech in which the men of former things were entitled
to indulge, had the good spirit that was alive in the
people been cultivated and caressed. Without ventur-
ing to decide whether or not the nation might have
assented to a moderate Episcopacy, it was heartily
tired of things past, and ready for moderation in some
form or other. One powerful element of the old re-
sistance was gone. With the zealous Covenanters the
landowners had now no common cause. A quarter of
a century had passed since the climax of their terror,
that the Church property gathered by them during
the previous seventy-five years would be torn from
them. A new generation now held these lands ; and
the rapid succession of convulsions since the settle-
ment of 1633, when tithes were commuted, had
driven out of recollection a matter so little before the
world — so completely each man's private affair — as the
fear that the settlement was only a first step towards
the restoration of all the old ecclesiastical property to
the Church. It needed the conjunction of two spirits
so peculiar as those of Charles I. and Laud to rouse
such an apprehension ; and such a conjunction was
one of the rare things which men do not expect
every day, and only feel when they are really seen to
be approaching. On the other hand, they had more
recent recollections of the hard discipline exercised
over their life and conversation by the Presbyterian
clergy, and were in no humour to submit to their yoke.
The clergy themselves were weary of the bondage
of " the sectaries," and in the bulk tlioroughly loyal.
CHARLES II.
zealous Covenanting historian, speaking out of the
pirit driven into his community by the events that
were to come, said of his countrymen of the Restora-
tion period: " Meantime the king's character stood so
high in tlie opinion and the idolatrous affections of
the miserable people of Scotland, that a man might
more safely have blasphemed Jesus Christ than derogate
in the least from the glory of his perfections ; people
would never believe he was to introduce bishops till
they were settled in their seat." ^
Whatever earnestness there was in Charles II. 's
nature seems to have turned against the Covenant
and that religion which, as Burnet makes him say,
was "not a religion for a gentleman." He knew
what it was, not from theological study, but bitter
experience. In the days of his misfortune he had
been subject to brief periods of danger and privation;
but in general he led an easy, rakish, and luxurious
life, Avith much in it to satisfy the desires of his
nature. Through its pleasant vistas his dreary abode
at Scone seems to have come like some nightmare
vision of horrors. Yet the few who were alike zealous
in loyalty and in Covenanting faith seem to have
thought that with this odious burden on his memory,
even when triumphant in the homage of the reactionary
zeal of England, he was to come forward and accept
all the humiliating tests endured by him at Scone.
It is strange to find how well one who had expected
to find in him a Covenanting king, and was disap-
pointed, could describe the motives likely to turn a
king like Charles towards Episcopacy rather than the
Covenant : " He knew well bishops would never be
> Kirkton, 132,
sharp's negotiations, 1660-61. 397
reprovers of the Court, and the first article of their
catechism was Non-resistance. They were men of that
discretion as to dissemble great men's faults, and not
so severe as the Presbyterians. They were the best
tools for tyranny in the world ; for do a king what he
would, their daily instruction was kings could do no
wrong, and that none might put forth a hand against
the Lord's anointed and be innocent. The king knew
also he should be sure of their vote in Parliament
desire what he would, and that they would plant a
sort of ministers which might instil principles of
loyalty into the people till they turned them first
slaves and then beggars." ^
When the Court reached London, it found there two
ambassadors sent to plead the cause of a Presbyterian
Establishment for Scotland. The natural conclusion
to be anticipated from the conflicting powers was a
compromise. If there were on the one hand the king
and his favourites eager for a courtly hierarchy, there
was on the other extreme the wild remnant in the
west. The moderate men, if driven to extremities,
must make common cause with them; and that inferred
an effort, with the aid of the English remnant, to
re-establish the Covenant over the three kingdoms.
From such an alliance and crusade the moderate party
recoiled with tremors. To avoid it they would have
given up much. Then it would not, after all, be a
courtly Prelacy that Scotland would possess, unless
the attempts on the old Church lands were renewed,
and that was not in the calculation of chances. The
Scots prelates, whose incomes Avere shaped in the
curious disputes which we have seen in King James's
1 Kirkton, 131, 132.
398 CHARLES II.
reign, would be poor men beside the Lords Bishops of
England. It was noticed that the revenues of the see
of Winchester were worth more than those of all the
Scots sees collectively.^ The result of these conflict-
ing forces, had they been left to free action, can only
be matter of calculation, for the end was otherwise
decided. The Scots Presbyterians were represented
by a traitor who abandoned all. James Sharp was
sent to London as an ambassador in the cause of a
Presbyterian polity, and he returned as the selected
Archbishop of St Andrews. This is one of the simple,
and to a certain extent satisfactory, occasions in which
it is hopeless to plead honest conviction.
Sharp went to London as the ambassador of the
Broad or Kesolution party in the Church ; he was to
treat with ]\lonk and with whatever party he might
find in power. He had, as we have seen, represented
this party at the Court of the Protectorate, where
it was thought that the Pv,emonstrants were unduly
favoured, and had gained a character among the public
men of the age as one endowed with tact and good
practical sense. His instructions bear date 6th Feb-
ruary 1660. They refer in some measure to practical
details, such as "a commission for settling and aug-
menting of ministers' stipends." His primary instruc-
tion was : "You are to use your utmost endeavours that
the Kirk of Scotland may, without interruption or
encroachment, enjoy the freedom and privileges of her
established judicatories ratified by the laws of the land."
Of the subsidiary instructions, one, when read by the
events preceding and those following on it, is suggestive
of reflection : " Whereas, by the lax toleration which
1 Wodrow, i. 2.35.
sharp's negotiations, 1660-61. 399
is established, a door is opened to a very many gross
errors and loose practices in this Church ; you shall
therefore use all lawful and provident means to re-
present the sinfulness and ofFensiveness thereof, that
it may be timeously remedied."^ This one direction
Sharp may be said to have followed to the letter, but
scarcely in the spirit intended by his instructors.
Robert Douglas was appointed his colleague, to join
him in London if necessary ; but Sharp found that
the essential parts of the business had better be con-
ducted by himself alone. By ]\Ionk's suggestion he
went to the Court at Breda, and had interviews with
the new king before he crossed the Channel. His
correspondence at the time, especially that with
Douglas, has been preserved. It is a bulky collection,
and it would be difficult to find letters with fewer
ostensible attractions ; but when we read them by the
light of after-events, it is interesting to trace through
them some faint vestiges of the workings on the
emissary's mind. The first distinct utterance is a
caution not to demand too much — not to attempt to
force the Covenant on England and Ireland : " Pres-
byterians here are few, and all are Englishmen, and
these will not endure us to do anything that may
carry a resemblance in pressing uniformity. I shall
not be accessary to anything prejudicial to the Pres-
byterian government ; but to appear for it in any
other way than is within my sphere is inconvenient,
and may do harm and not good." Again : "For me
to press uniformity for discipline and government
upon the king and others, I find, would be a most dis-
gustful employment and successless ; for although the
^ Wodrow, i. 5.
400 CHARLES II.
king could be indvicecl to be for it, it were not in his
power to effectuate it, the two Houses of Parliament
and body of this nation being against it ; and if I speak
what I know and can demonstrate to you, 'tis already
past remedying."
All this carries an air of sense and modesty. Tak-
ing by deduction from the event an evil view of it, it
might seem a modification of his claim in order that
the remainder might be bought up. The man taking
his stand on the Covenant as absolute righteousness,
which all the three kingdoms must profess, presents a
more formidable obstacle to the seducer than he who
merely claims for himself and his friends an exemption
from the general rule. But on the other hand it might
be said, that if he then had the design of making the
Covenant odious in England, arrogant and excessive
demands were the way to accomplish his end.
On his return to London we find him from time to
time disturbed in spirit by symptoms of the prevalence
of Episcopacy : " A knowing minister told me this
day that if a synod should be called by the plurality
of incumbents, they would infallibly carry Episcopacy.
There are many nominal, few real, Presbyterians. The
cassock-men do swarm here, and such as seemed before
for Presbytery would be content of a moderate Epis-
copacy. We must leave this in the Lord's hand, who
may be pleased to preserve to us what He hath
wrought for us." Again : " I pray the Lord keep
them from the Service-book and Prelacy. If the
king should be determined in matters of religion by
the advice of the two Houses, 'tis feared that Covenant
engagements shall not be much regarded. All sober
men depend more upon the king's moderation and
sharp's negotiations, 1660-61. 401
condescension than what can be expected from others.
The Episcopalians drive so furiously that all lovers
of religion are awakened to look about them, and to
endeavour the stemming of that feared impetuousness
of these men. All that is hoped is to bring them to
some moderation and closure with an Episcopacy of a
new make." " I see generally the cassock-men appear-
ing everywhere boldly, the Liturgy in many places
setting up. The service in the chapel at Whitehall is
to be set up with organs and choristers, as formerly."
Was all this to prepare people for a coming phenome-
non— a torrent of Prelacy so powerful that, unable
to resist it, he is soon carried away by it ?
As he writes, the torrent gains strength : " The
course of Prelacy is carrying on without opposition,
so that they who were for the moderation thereof
apprehend they have lost their game. No man knows
what the overdriving will come to. The Parliament
complain of his majesty's moderation, and that he
does not press the settling all stent ante. God only
knows what temptations and trials are abiding us.
I have made such use of your papers as is possible.
You stand exonered as to any compliance with the
times, or betraying the common cause by your silence,
in the judgment of all to whom I have communicate
what you have ordered me to do. Our task is to wait
upon God, who hath done great things we looked not
for, and can make these mountains plains."
One thing evidently disturbed him personally during
this ruin to the cause. Douglas spoke of coming to
help him. That must be prevented. He wrote that
he was "tossed in his thoughts about it." In one
light it might do good ; but, on the other hand,
VOL. VII. 2 c
402 CHARLES II.
when he reflects what a jealous eye the Prelatical
party, who bear him no goodwill, wUl have on him
and his carriage, he is recommended to forbear. " I
know," he says, " you are not caj)able of being tickled
by the desire of seeing the grandeur of a court, and
you would soon tire were you here ; and the toil and
charge of coming hither and returning in so short a
time — it being necessary you be at home against the
sitting of the Parliament — will be, in my apprehension,
much more than any good can be done at this time."
No — on the whole, he had better not come at present ;
but he is told that "when matters come to a gTeater
ripeness two or three months hence, your coming may
be of more use and satisfaction to yourself and advan-
tage to the public." Sharp was threatened with a still
more formidable visitation. A committee of his most
zealous and able brethren proposed to join him. He
met this boldly. The king did not desire to see them
then in the pressure of his English affairs, and their
coming would prejudice the cause — when his majesty
desired their attendance he would send for them.
The next quotation touches on perilous groimd :
" Our noblemen and others here keep yet in a fair
way of seeming accord ; but I find a high, loose spirit
appearing in some of them, and I hear they talk of
bringing in Episcopacy into Scotland, Avhich I trust
they shall never be able to effect. I am much sad-
dened and wearied out with what I hear and see.
Some leading Presbyterians tell me they must resolve
to close in with what they call moderate Episcopacy,
else open profanity will upon the one hand overwhelm
them ; or Erastianism — which may be the design of
some statesmen — on the other."
sharp's negotiations, 1660-61. 403
This is early in June 1660. On the 16th he comes
again on the impolicy of pressing the Covenant on
England, and.tm-ns into little windings of thought
and argument, such as a mind conscious of treachery
might follow : " Under correction I apprehend our
doing of that which may savour of meddling or inter-
posing in those matters here will exceedingly prejudice
us, both as to our civil liberty and settlement of reli-
gion. It is obvious how much the manner of settling
religion here may influence the disturbing and endan-
gering of our Establishment ; yet, Providence having
included us under a moral impossibility of preventing
this evil — if upon a remote fear of hazard to our reli-
gious interests we shall do that which will provoke
and exasperate those who wait for an opportunity
of a pretext to overturn what the Lord hath built
amongst us, who knows what sad effects it may
have ? The present posture of affairs looks like a ship
foundered with the waves from all corners, so that
it is not known what course will be steered. But
discerning men see that the gale is like to blow for
the Prelatic party ; and those who are sober will
yield to a liturgy and moderate Episcopacy — which
they phrase to be effectual Presbytery — and by this
salvo they think they guard against breach of Cove-
nant. I know this purpose is not pleasing to you,
neither to me." He maintains, somewhat circuitously
and dubiously, that while abstaining from interference
with English affairs, he has been very careful to avoid
committing himself or his brethren to their tenor, or
to anything that might imply a doubt on their " firm
adherence to the Covenant." He announces that the
king has fixed a day for considering the affairs of
404 CHARLES II.
Scotland, and moralises on the occasion : "The Lord
fit us for future trials, and establish us in His way."
On the 19th he imparts, though with a touch of hesi-
tation, hopes which he knew to be false : " I hope
this week to have his majesty's letter signifying his
resolution to preserve the established doctrine, wor-
ship, discipline, and government of our Kirk, and that
we shall have a General Assembly — and then I shall
come home with your leave."
A memorable passage in a State paper, of which
Sharp was the bearer, afterwards gave significance to
tlie words used by him on this occasion. In express-
ing his hopes about the tenor of the king's letter, he
did not say it was to ratify the Presbyterian Kirk
government by General Assemblies, synods, and presby-
teries, though he took care to make it be believed that
such was his own personal hope. His carefully-chosen
words of anticipation were to " preserve the established
worship, discipline, and government." This letter was
dated on the 19th of June. The State paper by which
it came afterwards to be interpreted was dated on the
10th of August. He continues in the same letter: " If
we knew how little our interests are regarded by the
most part here, we would not much concern ourselves
in theirs. If we cannot prevent the course taken here,
we are to trust God with the preservation of what He
hath wrought to us." "Although we want not our
fears, let us procure what is wanting by prayer, and
not dwell too much on fear lest we sour our spirits."
He would rather that his brethren worked by prayer
than by another of their functions. That things dis-
agreeable were said in sermons may be inferred from
this hint : " If the accounts here of expressions min-
sharp's negotiations, 1660-61. 405
isters use in their pulpits be true, I wish ministers
would moderate their passions at such a time."
While all these things were written, Sharp was
virtually Primate of Scotland and Archbishop of St
Andrews. It was believed, indeed, that the bargain
Avas struck at once when he arrived at Breda. Enough,
perhaps, has been drawn out of his perfidious corre-
spondence ; but it may complete this self-drawn pic-
ture of duplicity to add that one passage from his
letters that would have been the most likely to excite
suspicion : "I engage in no party while I am here,
that I may see how the wheels move. There is a
necessity I get and keep acquaintance with the Epis-
copal party as well as Presbyterians, and with those
about Court who manage the king's affairs, though
they be no friends to Presbyterians, though I be
hereby exposed to the construction of men. I am
confident the king hath no purpose to wrong our
Church in her settlement ; my greatest fear is their
introducing Erastianism."
Douglas, his colleague, though believed to be a
great clerical statesman, suspected nothing. On the
occasion when Sharp afterwards went up to London
for ordination — "that the Presbyterian stamp might
be abolished and a new Prelatical stamp taken on " —
Douglas tells us, with a natural bitterness : " Sharp
came to me before he went to London, and I told him
the curse of God would be on him for his treacherous
dealing ; and that I may speak my heart of this man,
I profess I did no more suspect him in reference to
Prelacy than I did myself"^
' Wodrow, i. 228. Douglas is the minister formerly mentioned as
the reputed grandson of Queen Mary. Wodrow preserved for his own
4o6 CHARLES II.
Shai-p returned to Scotland with a royal letter to
his constituents, commending " his good services," and
his faithful account of the state of the Church and the
loyalty and good carriage of his ministers. It inti-
mated the royal resolution "to discountenance pro-
]jrivate use the follo^ving memorandmn about him : He " was, as I
hear, a minister in Gustavus Adolphus' army, and then lie got the most
part of all the Bible in his memory, having almost no other Ijook to read;
so that he was a man mighty in the Scriptures. He was a man of great
authority and boldness. There was a godly learned minister — viz., Mr
Tullidafif — said to me he could never look to Mr Robert Douglas but he
really stood in awe of him ; and he said so of worthy Mr Robert Blair,
that he thought there was a great majesty and authority appearing in
both these men's faces, that he could not take a look of them but he
really stood in awe of them. It's reported that Gustavus said of Mr
Douglas, when he was going to leave him, ' There [is] a man who, for
wisdom and prudence, might be a counsellor to any king in Europe ;
he might be a moderator to any Assembly in the world; and he might
be a general to conduct my army, for his skill in military affairs.'
When some were speaking to him about the ceremonies of England, Mr
Douglas said that 'the bishop was the greatest ceremony of them all.'
If he would have complied, there would no man been Archbishop of St
Andrews before Mr Douglas. They repoit that he said to Jlr Sharp,
' If my conscience had been as yours, I could have been Archbishop of
St Andrews before you.' It's .said, when a great person was pressing
him to be Primate of Scotland, to put him off effectually he answered,
' I will never be Archbishop of St Andrews unless I be Chancellor of
Scotland also, as some were before me,' which made the great man
speak no more to him about that affair. There was a minister said to
me that Mr Douglas was a great State preacher — one of the greatest we
had in Scotland — for he feared no man to declare the mind of God to
him ; yet he was very acce.ssible, and easy to be conversed with. Unless
a man were for God, he had no value for him, let him be never so great
or noble." — Analecta, iii. 82, 83.
Burnet says : " There appeared an air of greatness in him, that made
all that saw him inclined enough to believe he was of no ordinary de-
scent. He was a reserved man. He had the Scriptures by heart to the
exactness of a Jew, for he was as a concordance. He was too calm and
too grave for the furious men, but yet he was much depended on for his
prudence. I knew him in his old age, and saw plainly he was a slave
to his popularity, and durst not own the free thoughts he had of some
things for fear of offending the people." — Summary of Affairs before the
Restoration.
sharp's negotiations, 1660-61. 407
fanity and all contemners and opposers of the ordi-
nances of the Gospel." Then follows a memorable
passage, drawn with a subtle purpose : " We do also
resolve to protect and preserve the government of the
Church of Scotland as it is settled by law without
violation ; and to countenance in the due exercise of
their functions all such ministers w^ho shall behave
themselves dutifully and peaceably, as becomes men
of their calling." ^ The coincidence of this with
Sharp's anticipation has not its full significance until
an inner meaning afterwards comes forth.
Of his brief sojourn in his native land, under the
scrutiny of keen eyes gradually becoming suspicious,
he has left ample traces in his own letters. For a key
to these we must forecast the man's nature as it after-
wards came out in his political life. It was that of a
dexterous experienced man of affairs ; but also of a man
of desperate resolutions, endowed with a wary, subtle
intellect for their execution, and all supported by a
daring and determined temperament. In the thick
of the dangerous political contest which he courted he
had often to fight alone, with no counsel or support
save from his own politic brain. Such was the man
who set himself to write long letters to his brethren
of the clergy — letters that read like the weariful
wailings of a disappointed man who pours into any
ear that will receive it the story of his wrongs and
woes, and bitterness of spirit, and determination to
abandon the world with its vanities and deceptions,
and find solace in obscurity aud solitude. Then he is
bereft of all sympathy in his distress; yea — keener
suffering still — he is absolutely suspected. He sees,
1 Wodrow, i. 80.
4o8 CHARLES II.
with all others, that the calamity he has done his best
to defeat is coming; but instead of an object of sus-
picion, he should be an object of special compassion ;
for is not he the greatest sufferer of all, since by giving
his services to the common cause he had made it
especially his own 1 The whole of his lamentation,
too, is amply seasoned with ejaculations of piety, a
weakness from which Burnet tells us that Sharp, in
his communications with the companions of his
Prelatic life, was peculiarly exempt.
A man of mere ordinary selfish temperament, yield-
ing to the pressure of fortune, and preparing himself
to accept the Avinning side in such a contest, does
not take this tone. His resource is generally a surly
silence ; and if he is active, it is in preparing the way
for desertion by gradually letting it come forth that he
has got new lights, and found reason to doubt whether
the cause hitherto maintained by him is the right
one. But it is clear that Sharp had not to take the
mere passive attitude of yielding to events. He had
to give material help in shaping them. The project
on hand was perilous. Its success depended on dex-
terous and dangerous tactics which might any moment
be overturned ; for Charles 11. was not a man like his
father, on whom a servant such as Laud could place
absolute reliance. In short, it was the case of a leader
betraying his camp into the hands of the enemy, who,
to conceal his purpose from his brethren, required all
his power of dexterity and cunning. It is observable
that in these communings he reserves what might be
considered a point of refuge, whence he could possibly
maintain a lAea for consistency ; but it was one so far
out of the question on hand that it might escape
sharp's negotiations, 1660-61. 409
observation. He ever speaks of himself as in the
hands of the king, and bound without reserve im-
plicitly to obey the command so laid upon him. In
giving effect to this spirit he holds by Lauderdale as
his immediate leader and " very good lord," in whose
fortunes his were embarked. This conjunction will
find a special significance when Lauderdale reveals
to us his own policy. JMeanwhile, he who was be-
lieved to rule the king's mind in Scots affairs, was
a Covenanter who had undergone sufferings for the
cause.
On the 12th of January 1661, among the earliest of
these vindicatory and supplicatory epistles, he says :
"If I stand right in my noble and dearest lord's opin-
ion, in which I trust my integrity shall preserve me,
I shall make small reckoning- of the blasting from the
tongues which folly and perverseness have and do
still design against me. You know I have been alone
upon the stage, and therefore cannot escape the con-
versings of persons as they are variously affected and
interested. My surest fence is in God, who knoweth
that my regard to the interest of my country and this
Kirk doth prejudice my selfish considerations."
On the 26th he introduces his grief with a touch of
decorous modesty : " I do not inquire of business —
when I am asked I tell my judgment. Once a-day I
go to the abbey, officiate at my Lord Commissioner
his table, which I have done upon his invitation, as I
wrote to you formerly ; he uses me civilly. By any-
thing I can yet perceive amongst them, I can find no
design to alter our Church government ; and though
they had it, I do not see how it can be effectuate.
Some discontented, and others who have nothing else
4IO CHARLES II.
to do but to frame conjectures and sjDread tliem, talk
and write what they fancy. No man nor action
escapes their teasing tongues. I want not my own
share of that happiness. AVhether my preferment to
he the only minister who attends the Court doth make
me the subject of people's talk, the object of envy
from others, I know not ; but I am sure my employ-
ment nor fate are not very pleasant to me."
On the 31st he becomes more energetic about the
malice, folly, and calumny of which he is the victim :
" I see no fence for me but patience under the hand of
God, who sees it fit to put me to such an afflicting exer-
cise ; and contempt against what the ill-minded and
factious can do against me, which the Lord, I bless
Him, is pleased in some measure to vouchsafe upon
me. And I think I could not have that patience and
untroubledness if my conscience did accuse me of
what malicious folly would fix upon me. I have been
formerly represented as if I had engaged while I was
in London to introduce Episcopacy into this Church,
and now I am reputed to be an apostate Covenanter.
Sure the next Avill be that I am turned fanatic and
enemy to the king."
The next two passages are extracted from a long
letter dated on the 19th of March : " I had no designs
but the service of others more than myself I thank
God disturbing hopes and fears do not discompose me,
nor is my judgment perverted by aff"ection or interest.
I do chain my affection and desire to that stream of
Providence which may make it be well with the king
and your master, my lord. I am no fanatic, nor a
lover of their Avay under whatsoever refined form ; yet
of late I have received a different light as to the king's
sharp's negotiations, l66o-6r. 411
judgment as to our Church than I found when I
parted from Whitehall. This may be a riddle to you,
but to open more in this way I cannot. I tell you it
is, and hath struck me with amazement — our evil is
from those with you. I cannot exempt some among
ourselves, of whom I am not one. The only wise God
knoweth what ; but for anything yet appearing to
me, I cannot see how this current shall be stemmed,
and this Church kept upon the bottom it stands.
Although you like not my desire to retire now, yet
pardon me to differ from you in my resolution not to
meddle any more in these stormy and bespattering
entanglements. If men will not regard my credit
and peace, I must look to myself. The severity of the
sentence of a crashed credit and prostituted conscience
I do not fear from men of credit and conscience. I
have not stepped awry ; my uprightness will answer
for me when this dust of jealousies, disappointments,
fiddlings, and clamourings is over.
" God help us when we see that the concernments of
the Gospel of the Church and ministry must be hurled
at the heels of the interests of men designing nothing
but greatness, and taking advantage from the divi-
sions, unstableness, insignificance of ministers. For
my part, if, after long contest with men of Avhich it
is time to be wearied, I cannot have leave to retire
among my books, and bewail the evils which the folly
and self-seeking of men are bringing upon my country,
I must think de mutando solo, and breathing of an
air where I may be without the reach of the noise and
pressure of the confusions coming, which I had rather
hear of than be witness to, and for the preventing of
which I have not been wanting in the using of those
412 CHARLES II.
means which to the best of my understanding seemed
probable."
The next is a short but expressive passage from a
letter of the 15th of April, when he is drawing nearer
to his reward, and also his relief from his laborious
game, for that it was laborious the enormous length
of his letters shows us : "I do appeal to the con-
tinued tenor of my actions, which witness for me
in the judgment of all impartial and unbiassed ob-
servers ; and I can with patience and hope commit
myself, my credit, conscience, and what else is ex-
pressed that doth concern, into the hands of my
faithful Creator, who knows my way, and will bring
my integrity to light." ^
This feat of turpitude has a finish and completeness
often to be found in hostile accusations, but rarely
exemplified in real life. It is a tale not to have been
accepted on any authority but for the support afl^'orded
by the man himself. If it be asked why he should
have strewed around him these vestiges of bad repute,
the answer is, that he did so to secure something in
his esteem far more valuable than an honest name.
Among men inclined to moderate views there has
been a disinclination to believe in Sharp's perfidy,
because it makes one of the picturesque sketches in
Burnet's History. But in this instance Burnet's brief
1 These passages are from the Lauderdale manuscripts in the British
Museum, the contents of which were made easily accessible to the author
through a transcript kindly put at his disposal by Mr Douglas, the editor
of the ' North British Review.' The letters, on their own individual
merits, either as morsels of literature or as a general reflection of the
times, would be pronounced valueless, and even repulsive, but for the
interpretation they afford of things beyond their own tenor. To have
been collected and carefully preserved by such a man as Lauderdale,
they must have been considered of consequence as State papers.
sharp's negotiations, 1660-61. 413
estimate appears to me to give with as mucli accuracy
as animation the spirit slumbering in the bulky-
correspondence here referred to. Burnet's words are :
"As he had observed very carefully Monk's solemn
protestations against the king and for the Common-
wealth, it seems he was so pleased with the original
that he resolved to copy after it, without letting him-
self be diverted from it by scruples ; for he stuck
neither at solemn protestations, both by word of
mouth and by letters (of which I have seen many
proofs), nor of appeals to God of his sincerity in act-
ing for Presbytery, both in prayers and on other
occasions, joining with these many dreadful impreca-
tions on himself if he did prevaricate. He was all
the while maintained by the Presbyterians as their
agent, and continued to give them a constant account
of the progress of his negotiation in their service, while
he was indeed undermining it. This piece of craft
was so visible, he having repeated his protestations to
as many persons as then grew jealous of him, that
when he threw off the mask about a year after this,
it laid a foundation of such a character of him that
nothing could ever bring people to any tolerable
thoughts of a man whose dissimulation and treachery
were so well known, and of which so many proofs
were to be seen under his own hand."^
' It is biat fair to the memory of Sliarp to say that the man who, by
his position as a Churchman, and by his services to ecclesiastical history,
has the best title to represent the Church of Scotland — the Church
wounded by the event which was prosperous to Sharp — has deliberately,
and after a full view of the evidence, declined to press the charge of
deliberate turpitude. He thinks that Sharp was merely a seK-seeking
man who took the winning side when it was offered to him, concluding :
" He laboured, as it appears to us, honestly for its establishment at the
Restoration so long as there was any hope of its being established. He
414 CHARLES II.
The Estates of Parliament were to meet on tlie
first day of the year 1661. It had been for a short
time doubtful whether the meeting might not be
subject to a sense of degradation, from the absence
of certain decorations appropriate to the supreme
legislature of Scotland. They were merely valuable
chattels, yet were objects of deep national homage.
Immediately on the Eestoration came a question,
— What had become of the Honours of Scotland —
of the crown, the sceptre, and the sword ? It was
naturally supposed that they had been removed to
London. They were not there ; had they, then, been
destroyed, as part of the plan for obliterating the
traditions of Scottish nationality "? Another rumour
was that they had been taken abroad ; but, to the in-
finite delight of the people, it was announced that they
were safe at home. But their escape had been nar-
row. They had been in the official custody of the
Earl Marischal, who was lord of Dunnottar, one of the
strongest fortresses in Scotland. Thither they were
taken on Cromwell's invasion. But as one strength
fell after another, and Dumbarton and Dunnottar only
remained untaken, it was as absolutely certain as
human events can be, that Dunnottar would not long
hold against Cromwell's cannon. Two women — the
wives, one of the commander, the other of the minister
of the neighbouring parish of Kinneff — formed and
effected a plan for concealing the honours. Mrs
Granger, the minister's wife, carried them out through
the besieging army. The crown lay in her lap ; the
only abandoned the cause when it was hopeless. This was not the part
of a magnanimous man — it was not even the part of a sensitively hon-
ovirable or scrupulous man, considering the part that he had acted." —
North British Eeview, vii. 455.
PARLIAMENT, l66r. 415
sword and sceptre seem to have made a sort of dis-
taff for a mass of lint which, like a thrifty Scottish
matron, she was busily spinning into thread. The
minister buried them at night under the flags of his
church, and in that remote quiet parish church they
remained in entire concealment. As it Avas necessary
to keep the secret from friends as well as enemies, the
public had a pleasant surprise when it was revealed.^
Scotland was less fortunate in the fate of another
piece of property, according to modern notions far
more valuable. A considerable mass of the national
records had been removed to London during the Pro-
tectorate. It Avas observed that after the arrival of the
king they were still detained ; and this was coupled
with an unpleasant rumour, that Clarendon had recom- '
mended the king to keep up the forts built by Crom-
well in Scotland, with their garrisons. That these
chiefly consisted of Englishmen made them off'ensive in
Scotland ; and, as Roundheads, it is difBcult to suppose
them a valuable acquisition to the new Government.
Yet it was not until after a strong remonstrance from
his servants in Scotland that the king consented to
disband them and dismantle the fortresses. It is said
that the reason for detaining the records was to
discover and destroy the Covenant signed by the
king if it could be found. They were shipped for
Scotland before the end of the year 1661, but were
lost on the way by shipwreck.
By the recovery of the Regalia, the Estates were
thus enabled to assemble with all proper pomp and
ceremony. The commissioner was not selected, ac-
cordino- to former practice, from the heads of great
' Papers relative to the Regalia of Scotland, Bannatyne Club, 1829.
4l6 CHARLES II.
houses ; nor was lie, like Chancellor Hyde in Eng-
land, a learned lawyer and sagacious statesman, who
might be counted on for a policy prudent and far-
sighted. The new Lord High Commissioner was
John Middleton, a soldier of fortune, created Earl
of Middleton for the occasion. He had literally
risen from the ranks. Even in the courteous an-
nouncements of the peerages it is told that he " was
a pikeman in Hepburn's regiment in France." ^ He has
on several occasions passed before us — lastly, and most
conspicuously, in " Glencairn's expedition." Along
with his commission to represent the sovereign in the
Estates, he was invested with duties more appropriate
to his career as a dashing soldier, in the command of
the forces and the government of Edinburgh Castle.
Perhaps it was a good selection, since the work to be
done in that Parliament required one accustomed
rather to the word of command than the transaction
of business in committee.
The great achievement of the session was the " Act
Eescissory." It "rescinded" or cut off from the body
of the law all the statutes passed in the Parliament
of 1640 and subsequently." This withdrew from
the statute-book all legislation later than the year
1633, for the Parliament of 1639 passed no statutes.
Certainly no Act of the Scots Estates had ever accom-
plished so much as this. The Estates had been un-
usually busy in these cancelled Parliaments, and gave
forth a mighty bulk of legislation, in which the Acts
affecting the large questions in civil and ecclesiastical
^ Douglas, by Wood, ii. 231.
" Act rescinding and annulling the pretended Parliaments in tlie years
1640, 1641, &c.
ACT RESCISSORY, 1661. 417
politics were but of small bulk ; but it was thought
well to seize the opportunity and cast away the whole,
leaving it to the diligence of succeeding Parliaments
to restore all that related to the administration of
civil and criminal justice, to commercial legislation,
taxation, coinage, social institutions, and all the
complex elements of the legislation of the seventeenth
century. It was a partial realisation of the wish
imagined by Wordsworth for Rob Eoy the outlaw —
" Burn all the statutes and their shelves." It is a
short Act, and yet in its brevity a piece of slovenly
legislative work. The Acts thrown away are neither
admitted to be valid Acts of Parliament which should
be repealed, nor are they declared to be null as having
been illegally passed; but they are spoken of as invalid,
and yet are repealed. We have evidence of the hurried
preparation and passing of the measure. The practice
of passing Acts of Parliament in this reign was not to
bring in bills and pass them amended or otherwise,
but to leave the Lord Clerk Register to put the Act
in shape after its substance was adopted. That high
officer, indeed, had the chief work of every measure,
and could expedite or retard it as he chose. We find
Middleton writing to Primrose, who was then Clerk
Register : " The Act that is now before you is of the
greatest consequence imaginable, and is like to meet
with many difiiculties if not speedily gone about.
Petitions are preparing, and if the thing were done it
would dash all these bustling oppositions." Then after
promises of substantial gratitude if it is done : " Now
I am more concerned in this than I was ever in a
particular. The speedy doing is the thing I propose
as the great advantage, if it be possible to prepare it
VOL. VII. 2 D
4l8 CHARLES II.
to be presented to-morrow by ten o'clock in the fore-
noon to the Articles, that it may be brought into the
Parliament to-morrow in the afternoon. The reason of
this haste shall be made known to you at meeting."^
Burnet mentions a feature of the times felicitous to
such rapid operations : " It was a mad roaring time,
full of extravagance ; and no wonder it was so, when
the men of affairs were almost perpetually drunk."
The Act Rescissory Avas immediately followed by
" an Act concerning religion and Church government."
After some preliminaries of pious thankfulness for his
majesty's preservation and restoration, there follow
assurances "that his majesty will be careful to promote
the power of godliness, to encourage the exercises of
religion, both public and private, and to suppress all
profaneness and disorderly walking." There is no
legislation in the statute — that is for the future ; and
it is announced, that " as to the government of the
Church, his majesty will make it his care to settle and
secure the same in such a frame as shall be most agree-
able to the Word of God, most suitable to monarchi-
cal government, and most complying with the public
peace and quiet of the kingdom." There was a hint
of what was coming, in an arrangement " in the mean
time" to "allow the present administration by sessions,
presbyteries, and synods," " and that notwithstanding
of the preceding Act Rescissory of all pretended Parlia-
ments since the year 1633."^ Thus the existing arrange-
ments were a temporary expedient, and the basis on
which the permanent organisation was to stand was
the system of Church government existing in 1633.
The plot is now completed. Sharp had announced
1 Baillie's Letters, iii. 686. « Act. Pari, vii. 88.
RESTORATION OF EPISCOPACY, 1661. 4T9
the prospect of a proclamation, assuring his friends
of the preservation " of the established worship, dis-
cipline, and government " of their Church. He brings
down such a proclamation. Suddenly, as in one of
the revolutions of a pantomime, the whole apparatus
of the Presbyterian polity is swept from the stage,
and Prelacy stands in its place as the established " dis-
cipline and government." Is anything necessary to
complete the evidence that Sharp's hand was in this
feat ■? If so, it is at hand in a letter to Middleton,
in which he takes credit as the inventor of the
whole. Describing an audience with the king, he
says : " He spoke to me of the method to be used
for bringing about our Church settlement, and bade
me give my opinion of a present expedient, which,
when I had offered, he was pleased to approve ; so
did the Bishops of London and Worcester; and after
consultation with our lords, it was agreed that
Lauderdale and I should draw a proclamation from
the king, to be sent to your grace, with which I
trust you will be satisfied ; and, with submission to
your grace's opinion, I should think the time for
our settling will be more seasonable and proper after
that your grace hath come hither, and so ordered the
way of it as that the perfecting of the work may
be upon your hand, from whom it had its beginning,
and under whose countenance and protection it must
thrive and take rooting. Your grace knoweth the
work is of great consequence, and will not want
its difficulties, which can only be overcome by your
prudence and resolution. Many things are previous
to the ordering and signing of it; and till they be
moulded, the proclamation will suffice to the dispos-
420 CHARLES II.
ing of minds to acquiescence to the king's pleasure,
which your grace will be able to put into execution
with fewer inconveniences than if the king should
presently declare." ^
The field was now cleared for an " Act for the resti-
tution and re-establishment of the ancient government
of the Church by archbishops and bishops." This was
passed on the 27th of May, just two days before the
anniversary of the Restoration. An Act had been
passed for keeping that day holy. Many were pre-
pared to evade the provision, and some to give overt
evidence of its offensiveness. Besides the established
objection to holidays as idolatrous, it was held, by an
ingenious logic, that although the 29th of May hap-
pened to be the day of the restoration of a worthy
prince, it might also happen to be the anniversary
of some atrocity or calamity. Of course the Act
coming so close on its first celebi-ation only aggra-
vated the hostility. This in its turn enraged the
Court, and excited them to a measure which has some
interest as the first of a countless succession for
harassing the Presbyterian clergy. The offenders
were denounced as " such who pretend to ane greater
measure of zeal and piety, and no less loyalty, than
others, but who, under that pretext, always have been
and are incorrigible enemies to the present ancient
and laudable government of Church and State ; " and
it was decreed that they should be incapable of hold-
ing any benefice in the Church.^
The hierarchy was in existence before the Act for
' Letter from original in British Museum ; Trans. Ant. Soc. Soot.,
ii. 104.
^ Act. Pari., vii. 376.
STRENGTHENING THE PREROGATIVE, 1661. 421
the restoration of Episcopacy was passed. Only one
of the old bishops remained, and the rest had to go to
England for consecration. Those of them who had
not been ordained episcopally had to accept a second
ordination. Among these Sharp was one. Even to
his brazen nature there seems to have come a touch
of shame at this solemn avowal that his sacred office
as a minister, and the institution whence he drew it,
were both impostors. He reasoned against the double
ordination, but in vain ; and as he was not the stuff
that martyrs are made of, he had to accept of it. An-
other ceremony of interest to religious parties in Scot-
land came off at the same time — the Covenant was
solemnly burned by the hands of the common hangman.
The G-overnment had meanwhile taken measures
for strengthening its hands ; and